I Just Want a Normal Life A Phenomenological Inquiry into Children’s Perspectives on Parental Addiction and the Effects of the Addiction in the Parent-Child Relationship

Substance abuse is a destructive behavior that affects the life of the chemically dependent individual and his/her family. Past research has focused on the effectiveness of involving family members in therapy as to engage the substance abuser in treatment on risk factors and predictors for children’s future drug use and the externalizing behaviors exhibited by children of chemically dependent parents. No research so far has focused on the meanings children give to parental substance abuse. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and meanings that the children of chemically dependent parents give to the addiction and how the addiction affects the attachment bond. A qualitative methodological approach namely the tradition of pheno­menology was used.Nine children between the ages of 9 and 16 took part in the study. Several themes emerged from the children’s responses such as drug use of self and parent child’s feelings towards the parent and their own feeling of loss emotional and physical chaos sources of help and their life in recovery.