Session Information
05 SES 06 A, Promoting Wellbeing and Addressing Loneliness and Parental Substance Abuse
Paper Session
Contribution
As many as 30% of young people are affected by parental substance use, including hazardous drinking across Europe (EMCDDA 2010). Young people may experience a range of impacts including on their health and well-being and educational experiences (Cleaver et al 2011, Velleman & Templeton 2016, Kuppens et al 2020). Indeed, research from Europe suggests there may be significant effects on academic outcomes, including academic underachievement and school adjustment (Torvik et al 2011, Berg et al 2016, Lowthian 2022). Structural and intersecting issues such a poverty, domestic abuse and mental health are central to understanding both the impacts and outcomes for young people and their families, with deprivation the central driver of statutory intervention in children’s and families’ lives (Bywaters et al 2016). Recently, a Council of Europe Report described children affected by parental drug use as ‘not receiving enough attention’ and recommended the development of ‘sensitising tools aimed at understanding the experience of parental drug dependence, (to) initiate discussions about it in society, schools, communities and families’ (Giacomello 2022:85). There is an absence of research that considers day-to day school experiences for young people affected by drug use and a small number of qualitative studies which do provide some deeper insights into the relational complexities between poor school attendance and engagement more generally (Barnard and Barlow 2003, Backett-Milburn et al 2008).
Much of the literature on young people and families affected by parental substance use describe attempts to manage stigma and shame, fears around (and actual) removal and how they ‘get by’ (Backett-Milburn et al 2008). Bancroft (2004) and Backett-Milburn (2008) describe the ways in which young people agentically managed their day to day lives by, for example, attempting to take control of their parent's drug or alcohol use and family responsibilities, protecting their parents and siblings, withdrawing to private space, and occasionally confronting parents about their use. Young people are, accordingly, creatively responding to their relational and social contexts. Young people may present in school in ways that aim to keep themselves ‘under the radar’, and as having 'normal' family lives (Backett- Milburn et al 2008, Sipler et al 2020). These may mean that their need for support in school is hidden as teachers may be unable to recognise and respond to young people’s well being needs. Young people may be viewed as resilient or as coping (Velleman and Templeton 2016), though there is a gap in the literature about their school experiences and school-based responses. This paper will examine how young people and their caregivers navigate and negotiate day-to-day life at school.
Method
This is an interpretivist study adopting a qualitative approach (Denzin & Lincoln 1998). Fourteen semi-structured home-based interviews were conducted with seven children and their seven mothers/ caregivers within six families with long term use of opiates and other drugs. Three discussion groups were held with ten schoolteachers around their knowledge and experience of identifying and responding to children affected by parental drug use in a school setting. Projective techniques which range in their purpose, including producing ‘data,’ facilitating discussion, and as a mechanism allowing children to manage the intense research relationship were used in this study. Projective techniques and visual methods, included drawings, storyboards, and eco maps (Hartman 1978, McCormick et al 2008) were important in addressing power relations and agency with young people (Bagnoli 2009, Baumgartner and Buchanan 2010). In considering the claims made from research with children and young people, Morrow (2008) suggests that using a number of methods including creative methods, such as those used in this study, can help to reduce biases. The data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006, Braun and Clarke 2019). Reflexivity is crucial to ensure research is ‘ethically mindful’ (Guillemin and Heggen 2009) and Graham et al (2015) suggest there is a multitude of ‘microethical’ moments that require ‘right here, right now’ responses. I shall give an example of these ‘moments’ during my fieldwork and examine the importance of reflexivity throughout the research process with young people and their caregivers. Limitations include the small sample size, though findings will be relevant for further study in this under-researched area.
Expected Outcomes
In this study, young people affected by parental drug use are managing long-term, highly complex living situations, a coalescence of problems. Young people and their mothers and caregivers experienced multiple, complex stigmas. The management of stigma by young people was central to interactions with school. The management of stigma was also pivotal to recognition of, and responses to, young people impacted by parental drug use. Most young people’s situations were not fully known to their teachers, and children and young people managed that hiddenness, including their caregiving responsibilities. This study demonstrates the tension between young people managing stigma through attempts to remain under the radar and the resultant struggle to have their needs seen and responded to in school. There is no ‘quick fix’ to resolve this tension. Recognition by schools of the ways in which children and their caregivers agentically manage day-to-day life, including self- exclusion from school, the importance of routine and structure and transitions is needed. This also involves addressing constraints on agency and recognition of the negotiations and resistances in day-to-day lives in and with school. The relational contexts of children and young people’s lives need to be understood alongside their motivation to safeguard and maintain their family life. This has implications for supporting regular school attendance where children and young people are caregiving, as well as for reframing discourses presenting young people and families as non-compliant, or deliberately misleading. Further, understanding agentic responses to complex stigma supports a strength-based approach to responding with, rather than to, families, in an approach that recognises structural inequities. Whole-school approaches are required to ensure that all young people receive safe, nurturing, compassionate responses in school that are rooted in understanding the voices and hidden experiences of young people in further developing support within and beyond the school walls.
References
Backett-Milburn, K., Wilson, S., Bancroft, A. and Cunningham-Burley, S. (2008) Challenging Childhoods: Young People’s Accounts of `Getting By’ in Families with Substance Use Problems Childhood 15 (4) 461-479. Barnard, M. and Barlow, J. (2003) Discovering Parental Drug Dependence: Silence and Disclosure Children and Society 17 (1) 45–56. Berg, L., Bäck, K., Vinnerljung, B. and Hjern, A. (2016) Parental Alcohol-Related Disorders and School Performance in 16-year-olds—A Swedish National Cohort Study Addiction 111 (10) 1795-1803. Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2) 77-101 Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2019) Reflecting on Reflexive Thematic Analysis Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health 11 (4) 589-597. Bywaters, P., Brady, G., Sparks, T. and Bos, E. (2016) Child Welfare Inequalities: New Evidence, Further Questions Child, and Family Social Work 21 (3) 369– 380. Cleaver, H., Unell, I. and Aldgate, J. (2011) Children’s Needs – Parenting Capacity. Child Abuse: Parental Mental Illness, Learning Disability, Substance Misuse and Domestic Violence (2nd edition). London: The Stationery Office. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2010). Children’s Voices: Experiences and Perceptions of European Children on Drug and Alcohol issues available at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/618/TP_ChildrenVoices_206942.pdf Giacomello, C. (2022) Children Whose Parents Use Drugs: Promising practices and recommendations Council of Europe available at https://rm.coe.int/2021-ppg-27-isbn-children-whose-parents-use-drugs-promising-practices-/1680a602ae Kuppens S, Moore SC, Gross V, Lowthian E, Siddaway AP. (2020) The Enduring Effects of Parental Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use on Child Well-being: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Dev Psychopathology 32 (2):765-778. Lowthian, E. (2022) The Secondary Harms of Parental Substance Use on Children’s Educational Outcomes: A Review. Journal Child Adolescent Trauma 15, 511–522. Sipler, E., Templeton, L. and Brewer, E. (2020) Steps to Cope: Supporting Young People Affected by Parental Substance Misuse and Mental Health Issues in Northern Ireland Advances in Mental Health 18 (3) 241-250. O'Shay-Wallace, S. (2020) We Weren't Raised that Way: Using Stigma Management Communication Theory to Understand How Families Manage the Stigma of Substance Abuse. Health Communication 35 (4) 465-474. Torvik, F., Rognmo, K., Ask, H., Røysamb, E. and Tambs, K. (2011) Parental Alcohol Use and Adolescent School Adjustment in the General Population: Results from The HUNT Study BMC Public Health 19 (11) 706. Velleman, R. & Templeton, L. (2016) Impact of Parents Substance Misuse on Children: An Update BJPsych Advances 22:2 108–117.
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