Adolescent Children of Alcoholics on Disclosure, Support, and Assessment of Trustworthy Adults

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe adolescent children of alcoholics' (COA) perspectives on disclosure and support. COA reported assessing the trustworthiness of adults before disclosing their home situation. Before disclosure they may have raised their own level of consciousness, told a peer, told an adult stranger, or in-directly communicated with an adult. These findings are the result of interviews with 27 adolescents attending support groups for COA in Sweden. Adults, who ask questions, listen carefully and cooperate with the child/adolescent, and who are knowledgeable about families with alcohol problems, are considered as supportive and trustworthy. The adolescents reported psychological, communicative, environmental, and generational aspects of the disclosure process.

What characterises a good family? Giving voice to adolescents

“…In our group of recruited adolescents, we expected, of course, that some of them would have problems in their family. We know that the children of alcoholics are loyal to their parents, and treat their problems as a family secret (Tinnfält, Eriksson, & Brunnberg, 2011), partly because they fear that they may be taken away from their family. It can be expected that all adolescents, regardless of their family situation, find the family, and a feeling of solidarity in the family, to be important.…”

Forgotten parents of alcohol dependent adults

“…Children of alcoholics (COA) occupy a significant place, a group that initially was analysed in the category of "forgotten children" [32][33][34], and also adults with childhood experiences in dependency problem families (Adult Children of Alcoholics -ACA) [35]. Especially as regards the latter, attention is brought to not only the amount of publications dedicated to their specific problems [36][37][38][39], but also specially created therapeutic projects [40,41]. Hitherto, studies concentrated also on the attempt to define the degree and scope of the variety of threat and protective experiences of children in the families of alcoholics [42].…”

“…Znaczące miejsce zajmuje problematyka dzieci alkoholików, grupy analizowanej początkowo w kategoriach "zapomnianych dzieci" [32][33][34], a także dorosłych osób z doświadczeniem dzieciństwa w rodzinach z problemem uzależnień [35]. Szczególnie w odniesieniu do Dorosłych Dzieci Alkoholików (DDA) uwagę zwraca nie tylko wielość publikacji poświęconych ich specyficznym problemom [36][37][38][39], lecz także specjalnie przeznaczonych dla nich projektów terapeutycznych [40,41]. Dotychczasowe badania koncentrowały się również na próbie określenia stopnia i zakresu zróżnicowania zagrażających i chroniących doświadczeń rodzinnych dzieci alkoholików [42].…”

Skolsköterskans rolltransformering till den nya hälsofrämjande positionen

“…Man ser exempelvis en stark betoning pa˚att betrakta eleverna som unika individer och det medfo¨r att skolsko¨terskor bo¨r medvetet efterstra¨var ett bemo¨tande av elever som mo¨jliggo¨r delaktighet och dialog det vill sa¨ga ett elevcentrerat bemo¨tande. 17,18,20,33 Sammantaget inneba¨r arbetet som skolsko¨terska till stor del ett viktigt, ansvarsfullt ensamarbete men ocksa˚ett arbete baserat pa˚samverkan och interaktion i team. Resultatet i denna studie pa˚visar behovet av va¨lutbildade skolsko¨terskor som har fo¨rma˚gan att balansera deras insatser mot de behov de mo¨ter hos eleverna och da¨rigenom ocksak unna fullfo¨lja det ha¨lsofra¨mjande och proaktiva arbete de ansvarar fo¨r.…”