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ABSTRACT
Aim: To add to our knowledge concerning the key elements involved in the individual’s experience of growing up with substance abusing parents and the resulting challenges this involved for their own parenthood.
Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 parents who had participated in a mental health intervention programme. All had experienced substance abusing parents in their family of origin. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. They also completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their attachment style.
Result: Participants reported a high incidence of emotional abuse and neglect coupled with inadequate support from the community. Their own parental role was influenced by high parental stress and a majority had an insecure attachment style.
Conclusions: All participants had experienced a very difficult childhood which was reinforced by the fact that they received little support from society. Their childhood experience and the resulting challenges that this created in their own parenting role could negatively influence their own children’s ability to form a secure psychosocial development. It is therefore important to develop instruments that can help to identify children who were raised in misuse families in order to accommodate the transgenerational effects of growing up with substance abusing parents.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the parents who participated in the study. The authors thank Bill Petit for excellent translating assistance. This work was supported by Grants from Skane Region County Council, the Lindhaga Foundation, and the Johan Olsson Foundation.
Compliance with ethical standards
All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Eva Tedgård
Eva Tedgård, PhD student, clinical psychologist and family psychotherapist Working part-time in an Infant Mental Health Unit in Malmö, Sweden.
Maria Råstam
Maria Råstam, Senior Professor, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Lund.
Research areas: Psychiatric child and adolescent psychiatry, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorder, neurodevelopmental disorder
Ingegerd Wirtberg
Ingegerd Wirtberg is Senior Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Lund Research areas: Infertility treatment, developmental support for children, medical family therapy Supervisor in Marte-Meo and family psychotherapy