Parenting to provide social recovery capital: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background

Although research demonstrates the necessity of social recovery capital (SRC) for youth in recovery, through having family that do not use substances and who support their recovery, the ways in which parents actually enact SRC have not been empirically examined. This qualitative study applied the Recovery Capital Model for Adolescents to group interview data from parent(s) of youth who resolved a substance use disorder (SUD) to explore the ways parents enacted SRC.

Method

The interviews were conducted in a prior ethnographic study in which parents of alternative peer group (APG) alumni volunteered to participate in a group interview; five mothers and five fathers of APG alumni participated in the interviews (n = 10). Three investigators analyzed the interview transcripts using the constant comparative method to identify family SRC and the specific components parents supported their child’s recovery.

Results

The primary themes of parent support of SRC included locus of control, parent growth, and sober/supportive home. Locus of control included parent strategies to leverage youth’s participation in treatment/recovery. Parent growth focused on the process of change parents described: from denial to developing insight and learning how to parent a child in addiction. Supportive and structured family included time spent with youth in recovery-related activities and improved communication and relationships.

Conclusions

Together, these themes suggest a process of parent change that supports an adolescent’s recovery trajectory and increases parenting skills and coping. These themes also highlight how the APG structure enabled this process, generating potential hypotheses for future recovery-oriented research to address.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• alternative peer group
• parenting
• qualitative research
• recovery
• recovery capital

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the APG staff, alumni, and parents who participated in the ethnography for sharing their time and reflections on their experience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The original data for this study was supported in part by grants to Angela Nash from the NAPNAP Foundation and the Zeta Pi Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health RRU-013. Emily Hennessy has support from NIAAA [K01 AA028536]. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the NIAAA or the other funding sources.