Abstract
Objective
The purpose of this study is to explore the adaptation processes of building attachment security later in life when one's attachment style has been affected by growing up in a ...household with a parent who uses substances.
Background
Parental substance use may have negative effects on children who grow up in those homes, including developing an insecure attachment style. Limited studies have focused on adult children of alcoholics/addicts' (ACOAs) attachment adaptation processes into adulthood.
Method
Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we explored the process ACOA's use to build attachment security. The first author interviewed 14 participants using a semistructured interview format through the video conferencing platform Zoom.
Results
Through analysis of the data, we identified a four‐phase process: (a) confusion, (b) transition, (c) restoration, and (d) dedication. This information provides a framework to show clients the attachment adaptation process model (AAPM), developed in this study, and helps them to visualize the process by which they may learn to develop more attachment security.
Conclusion
ACOAs may incur adverse experiences in childhood that influence their attachment development later in life. The researchers in this study built a model of how ACOAs build attachment security later in life.
Implications
Practitioners can help clients connect with community support groups, places of worship, and other small groups that the participants identified as instrumental in the healing process. Overall, helping clients find a place for safe and healthy connections is crucial during their journey to attachment security.
Research suggests that adult children of parents with harmful alcohol use are at increased risk for premature death. This national cohort study investigated mortality in adult children of parents ...with alcohol use disorder (AUD), adjusting for sociodemographic variables. The study used 1973 to 2018 data from Swedish national registers to compare mortality risk in children who had ≥ 1 parent with AUD (ICD-10 code F10 and its ICD-8 and ICD-9 equivalents) (n = 122,947) and those who did not (n = 2,298,532). A Cox regression model adjusted for year of birth, sex, parental education, and childhood loss of a parent was used. Before the age of 18 years, about 5% of children born in Sweden lived with ≥ 1 parent who had a clinical diagnosis of AUD. Overall mortality was higher in adult children of parents with AUD: hazard ratio (HR) 1.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.71–1.82. Mortality remained elevated after adjustments for sociodemographic factors (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.40–1.50). Children of parents with AUD had increased mortality from all investigated causes. The highest excess risk was for death from drug-related causes (excluding accidental poisonings) (HR 3.08, 95% CI 2.74–3.46). For most causes, mortality was higher if the mother had AUD than if the father had AUD. Patterns of mortality were similar in both sexes. This study provides evidence that parental AUD raises the risk of offspring mortality from preventable causes such as drug use, suicide (HR 2.16, 95% CI 1.98–2.36), accident (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.87–2.13), and assault (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.38–2.24).
When one or both parents misuse alcohol, it can lead to the development of particular and varied traits in their children. The present study tested whether adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs) who ...participated in therapy had better veracity assessment skills and more reliable beliefs about cues to deception than the control group of non-ACoAs. The results revealed that individuals who grew up in a family with alcohol misuse problems detected truth - but not lies - significantly better than the control group. The groups did not differ in accuracy of their beliefs about cues to deception. It is possible that the ACoAs' higher truth detection accuracy is to some extent attributable to their participation in therapy, which increased their level of trust in others.
In this autoethnography I explore the impact of my father's alcohol dependency on my relationship with him and implications for my own recovery from alcohol-related harm. Sketching, layering and ...poetic interludes help to move around the hyphenated space of son-father relations showing the wounds associated with his alcohol ab/use. The writing shows how I internalised and embodied other family members' shame, compounding my detachment and father hunger. It also shows how "energy of the wound" fuelled positive adaptations, learning to be "with" my adult-child-of-an-alcoholic-ness. I hope the writing helps both writer and readers make things better by offering new vistas on hardship, loss, adapting and healing. Connecting with clinical audiences, potential implications for effective counselling are discussed.
This study offers an understanding of interactional resilience processes between young adults raised by caregivers who misused alcohol and people in their social-ecology who initiated supportive ...interactions that enabled them to achieve better-than-expected outcomes. Multiple in-depth face-to-face interviews and a draw-and-write methodology were used with 15 National University of Lesotho undergraduate students raised by caregivers who misused alcohol. An interactional resilience approach, building on person-in-environment and social-ecology perspectives on resilience, informed this study. Using constructivist grounded theory methods of data analysis, three themes were formulated: (a) other-initiated material support that elicits a response of resolve or obligation towards the other; (b) other-initiated sustained emotional support that elicits a response of hope for the future; and (c) other-initiated challenging support that elicits a change in behaviour. Given these findings, the study recommends that child and youth workers and social workers cultivate enabling and support-initiating social environments in key contexts such as schools, churches, and clubs, and develop children and young people’s skills to respond to and receive such support.
Alcoholism is a growing problem in Pakistan. Problems related to alcoholism affects the family members especially children of alcoholics who are likely to have biased perceptions of parental ...practices which in turn affects their attachment patterns.
To analyze the differences in perceptions of parental practices across three attachment styles namely avoidant, anxious/ambivalent, and secure attachments of the adults who are children of alcoholic parents.
The study is a correlational research design with a sample of 330 participants selected through purposive sampling technique. The participants were adults who are children of alcoholics from nuclear family systems, whose fathers were admitted in a rehabilitation center for the treatment of alcoholism for the second time.
MANOVA computed to examine differences in perception of parental practices across attachment styles was significant F(12, 632) = 53.130, p < .001, Pillai's Trace = 1.003, partial eta squared = .501, indicating that those with different attachment styles perceive parental overprotectiveness, emotional warmth, and rejection differently.
Perceptions about parental practices for father can be linked with alcoholism, while for mother the perceptions about parental practices are a product of attachment mainly.
The findings can be used to devise counseling and therapeutic plans for adults who are children of alcoholics and help in educating them about the condition of alcoholism.
To determine whether adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of children of alcoholics (COA) in male were associated with their current "risky drinking".
This case-control study used the Alcohol Use ...Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT, cutoff is 7) to divide the participants into two groups, a "risky drinking" group (N = 53) and a "non-risky drinking" group (N = 97). Demographic data, Adverse Childhood Experiences-International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) were used for assessment. The specific relationships between ACEs and "risky drinking" were explored.
Respondents ranged in age from 29.70 ± 6.72 years; 74.5% were females; 94.7% were of Han nationality; 56.7% had a level of education above high school; 12% had no formal or stable job. There was difference in attitude to self-drinking between two groups (P < 0.001). The "risky drinking" group was more likely to have experienced a major depressive episode (P < 0.05), nonalcohol psychoactive substance use disorder (P < 0.01) and bulimia nervosa (P < 0.05), and they also experienced more physical abuse (P < 0.05), community violence (P < 0.001) and collective violence (P < 0.01). In a single factor logistic regression, physical abuse, community violence and collective violence were associated with a two to 11- fold increase in "risky drinking" in the adult COA, and in multiple factor logistic regression, community violence showed a graded relationship with "risky drinking".
The childhood adverse experiences contribute to "risky drinking" in COA. This finding in the Chinese context have significant implications for prevention not only in China but in other cultures. There must be greater awareness of the role of ACEs in the perpetuation of alcoholism.
When one or both parents misuse alcohol, it can lead to the development of particular and varied traits in their children. The present study tested whether adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs) who ...participated in therapy had better veracity assessment skills and more reliable beliefs about cues to deception than the control group of non-ACoAs. The results revealed that individuals who grew up in a family with alcohol misuse problems detected truth - but not lies - significantly better than the control group. The groups did not differ in accuracy of their beliefs about cues to deception. It is possible that the ACoAs' higher truth detection accuracy is to some extent attributable to their participation in therapy, which increased their level of trust in others.
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