The outcome of drug addiction as connected to the growing relationship issues in the family
Introduction
In their studies, Lander et al. (2013) established that a family is an essential sector in the community because it is the primary source of nurturing, socialization, and attachment of every human, ranging from the child to the adult in a societal setting. Therefore, drug addiction’s impact has a significant impact on the family and the community at large. Thus drug abuse has unique and distinct effects on the different family structures and formations. It is important to note that the effects of substance abuse are confined to a single nuclear family and have a significant effect on the extended families and the entire society. It is believed that in a family, genetic and environmental factors play a critical role in the development of substance abuse disorders. Daley et al. (2018) state that the effects of drug addiction can either be a short term of long term; for example, peace-loving families can significantly be divided by the strain and the impacts caused by substance abuse. Nuclear and extended family members may, to some extent, experience feelings such as anxiety, anger, abandonment, guilty, or even embarrassment and in many instances would find it more appealing to cut ties with the person abusing drugs; these effects on the families may continue from one generation to another. Nadeem et al. (2017) argue that the intergenerational effects of drug addiction have adverse effects on trust, the concepts of normative behaviors, and role modeling that can arguably damage the preceding generations’ relationships. Olafsdottir (2020) argues that drug addiction has psychological, financial, and social impacts on the user’s family and the individual. He argues that the psychological impact both the family and the user mentally, emotionally, and physically. On many occasions, children born by families displaying addiction behaviors are negatively affected by their adulthood behaviors. These children are at high risk in such cases when their parents take alcohol drinks in excess.
Additionally, the excessive take of alcohol may lead to employment loss, domestic violence, conflicts, and poverty. Daley et al. (2018) argue that individuals who abuse substances increasingly find themselves isolated from their families. On many occasions, they consider associating themselves with others who participate in antisocial activities.
Significance of the Study
As indicated, drug addiction has significant impacts and implications on the relationship between the user and the family. Some of the effects associated with excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs towards families include loss of employment, anger, unreliability, and domestic violence. By exploring these impacts as explained in this study, the research finding may be used to identify some of the pressing impacts of drug addiction and some of the treatment measures and interventions that can be used to minimize substance abuse. The study will also help in assisting the research in understanding some of the causes of substance abuse and their consequences on the relationships between families. Therefore, the research would help understand the concept of substance abuse and help fill the gap in the academic literature that explores the effects of drug addiction and the growing impacts on the relationship between families and the realities surrounding the subject of drug addiction.
Research Questions
What are the outcomes of drug addiction as connected to the growing relationship issues in the family?
What are the leading causes of substance abuse in families?
How can drug addiction be controlled to help create a cordial relationship between the user and the family?
Literature Review
This review’s primary purpose is to the outcome of drug addiction as connected to the growing relationship issues in the family. The research also provides a summary and a discussion of the available research works that are relevant to the research topic. The section also highlights the existing research gap and demonstrates the various approaches that can be used to fill the gap. Thus the review will provide an outline of the information provided by other scholars relevant and related to the research topic; this includes information that has been researched on drug addiction and family relationships. The literature review began by presenting a theoretical framework to ground the study and allow the researcher to understand how the problem already identified should be solved.
Theoretical Framework
Attachment Theory
Fearon & Roisman (2017) define attachment theory as the psychological, ethological, and evolutionary theory primarily concerned with human beings’ relationship. Attachment theory was developed by a psychoanalyst, namely, John Bowlby. Attachment theory suggests that children attach to care-givers for survival, security, among others. Thus, it is essential to note that children can easily acquire different behaviors from their parents through attachment theory. Lander et al. (2013) argue that families with substance abuse disorders have a significant impact on children’s development, and there is a higher likelihood that in the future, these children may have behavioral, emotional, and psychological struggles due to problems that are primarily due to drug abuse. Relationship acts as the communication medium that connects families; thus, the attachment theorem offers a method that helps understand the quality and the development of the relationship between them. While developing the theory, John Bowlby argued that the infant and the mother’s primary relationship does not serve as a replica of the subsequent relationships throughout the lifecycle. However, the approach in which the caretaker responds to the infant creates the quality of the attachment. Thus parents addicted to drugs whose moods are altered and spend most of the time trying to recover from the effects of the drug abuse may find it challenging to foster or build a healthy and robust attachment.
Family System Theory
Commonly referred to as the Bowen family system theory, Heafner (2014) argues that family system theory is a theory of human behavior that views a family as an emotional unit. In this, he argues that members are intensely emotionally connected and that families profoundly affect their members’ feelings, thoughts, and actions. Emotional interdependence presumably evolves to promote cohesiveness and cooperation that families require and desire to shelter, protect, and feed their members. Weir et al. (2013) argue that a family is a system in which every family member has a role to play. They argue that the family system theory grew from the biological-based general system approach. Different forms and types of family therapies fall under the family system theory; they include structural, strategic, and intergenerational family therapies. Bowen developed family system therapy to help treat individuals and families. In this approach, Bowen used genograms to help in the assessment and treatment. He used the concept of homeostasis to understand the effect of substance abuse disorder in families. He also used the therapy to reinforce the behaviors of every member of the family.
Family Environment and Drug Abuse
In his study, Huff (2012) argued that the family environment plays a critical role in the abuse of drugs such as alcohol and others. Factors such as living environment, inconsistent and unstable families that lead to violence, and transient living conditions that result from substance use have widely been linked with high prevalence rates in emotional and psychological development problems among the children. Ólafsdóttir (2020) argues that children coming from where alcohols and drugs are used have a high likelihood of using the drugs. For example, according to a study conducted by Loke & Mak (2013), It was evident that youths had a high probability of using drugs in such situations where parents or older siblings were involved in drug abuse.
How Drug Addiction Harms Family Relationships
In their works, Taplin et al. (2014) found the drug abuse in families is frequently and mainly accompanied by domestic violence, economic difficulties, and dangerous neighborhood environments, among others. They argued that drug abuse in families is typically characterized by low levels of tolerance, low levels of cohesion, poor parenting skills, isolation, and unrealistic expectations of children. Drug addiction is also positively associated with child neglect and abuse. Loke (2013) argues that parental stress and low self-esteem and frustration tolerance are primary reasons that lead to child abuse and neglect.
Research Methodology
Research Method
The study used a qualitative research method to investigate the problem. The researcher chose the method because it was easy to carry out and did not have enough time to conduct quantitative research. Using the qualitative technique, the researcher heavily relied on the secondary data obtained from journals, the internet, and the library. For purposes of validity, accuracy, and credibility, the researcher used information from well-credited internet and peer-reviewed journals; sources from Investopedia and Wikipedia were not used in the study.
Research Design
While conducting the study, the researcher used the descriptive survey research design based on case studies to determine the outcomes of drug addiction as connected to the growing relationship issues in the family. The research design is a theory-based design that involved the collection, analysis, and presentation of data. The design was useful because it helped the researcher to understand the importance of the research.
Data Collection and Analysis
In this study, the researchers used a qualitative research design, meaning that secondary data was used. The data used was obtained from the internet, peer-reviewed journals, and reports. The researcher also used interviews that were used to obtain information from the focus groups using semi-structured questionnaires. Thus the study used journal content with information about drug addiction and its effects on family relationships. Though because the research was too broad, the researcher used a sample survey technique. The study also used a snowballing technique in which a sample of 25 was used based on the case studies. The use of semi-structured interviews enabled the researcher to be specific to obtain the required information regarding the research topic. The data obtained through the interviews were then coded, cleaned, and stored in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for analysis. The data was then analyzed and summarized using the content data analysis technique in which data was summarized in the form of charts and tables.
Findings and Results
This chapter was divided into three primary subsections that illustrated the research results on determining the outcomes of drug addiction as connected to the growing relationship issues in the family based on the research questions.
Major Causes of Drug Abuse in Families
By answering this question, the researcher sought to determine the leading causes of substance abuse in families. Based on the analysis, it was evident that the leading cause of drug abuse in families was inconsistent parenting and family economic stability. The results demonstrated that children from low-income families had a high probability of substance abuse. The distribution of the causes of substance abuse is shown in the below pie-chart.
Figure 4.1: The Percentage distribution of the significant causes of drug abuse in families
From the above pie chart, 40% of the respondents reported that inconsistent parenting and Family Economic Stability were the significant causes of drug abuse in families. These factors significantly affected the relationships between the users and the family members.
Outcomes of Drug Addiction
As per the case studies and the literature review, substance abuse resulted in frustrations, domestic violence, fear, anger, isolation, and unreliability. Additionally, Spagnolo et al. (2015) argued that drug addiction could lead to short-term and long-term effects. The study established that substance abuse can affect individuals’ brain leading to mental disorders and depression. Also in their studies Loke and Mak (2013) revealed that peaceful families can be disintegrated due to substance abuse. The researchers found out children born from parents affected by substance abuse have a high probability of abusing drugs. Naedem et al. (2017) stated that in many families’ relationships and marriages are broken due to drug abuse because most of the victims cannot control their weird behaviors.
Chapter Five: Conclusion
The results obtained from the findings demonstrated that drug addiction is primarily a result of inconsistent parenting, negative communication, personal reasons, and families’ economic stability, among others. The findings also demonstrated a strong positive relationship between families affected by drugs and the probability of their children abusing drugs. The results also established that drug abuse among families could be managed through interventions such as family therapies based on the literature. Therefore, based on the study, it was evident that drug addiction significantly impacted the user and the family that primarily affects the relationship.