| Abstract | Alkoholizam je bolest koja utječe na funkcioniranje i kvalitetu života osobe koja boluje, ali i članova njezine obitelji. Zbog izmijenjene dinamike u obiteljima suočenima s alkoholizmom, djeca su u posebno nepovoljnom položaju, a alkoholizam roditelja utječe na njihovo fizičko i mentalno zdravlje, psihosocijalno funkcioniranje te obrazovno postignuće. Cilj je ovog istraživanja stjecanje uvida o ulozi djece u obitelji tijekom razdoblja pijenja, liječenja i apstinencije roditelja ovisnika o alkoholu.
U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 17 sudionika/ica u dobi od 20 do 32 godine s područja Grada Zagreba i obližnjih gradova, čiji je jedan roditelj u tretmanu kluba liječenih alkoholičara minimalno 2 godine sa stabilnom apstinencijom. Kod 14 sudionika/ica roditelj ovisnik u obitelji je otac, a kod 3 sudionika/ica roditelj ovisnik u obitelji je majka. Metoda prikupljanja podataka je dubinski intervju licem u lice, a prilikom analize podataka korišteni su postupci utemeljene teorije.
Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da djeca tijekom razdoblja pijenja, liječenja i apstinencije roditelja ovisnika u obitelji preuzimaju različite uloge: prema roditelju ovisniku (skrb usmjerena na suzbijanje pijenja, uspostavu i održavanje apstinencije), prema roditelju ne-ovisniku (pružanje fizičke i emocionalne podrške), te obitelji u cjelini (reguliranje dinamike i procesa u obitelji te održavanje funkcionalnosti i cjelovitosti obitelji). Ove uloge s vremenom opadaju, a fokus djece se prije ili kasnije preusmjerava na vlastito funkcioniranje i dobrobit.
Preuzimanje ili nepreuzimanje uloga u obitelji od strane djece motivirano je različitim dominantnim značenjima koja djeca pridaju zbivanjima u obitelji, poput očuvanja obitelji, percipiranja roditelja ne-ovisnika kao žrtve ili ispunjavanja očekivanih zadataka od djeteta.
Postoje tri obrasca promjene uloge djece tijekom spomenutih razdoblja, a to su: proaktivni tip djece, reaktivni tip djece i distancirani tip djece. Angažman djece temelji se na njihovom ulaženju u dinamiku parentifikacije prema roditelju ovisniku ili roditelju ne-ovisniku ili odbijanju ulaska u dinamiku parentifikacije. Ovo rezultira trima različitim ishodima koji doprinose očuvanju homeostaze u obitelji: očuvanju kvalitete obitelji, bazičnom funkcioniranju obitelji te razdvajanju sustava djeteta od sustava roditelja. |
| Abstract (english) | Introduction
Alcoholism is a disease that affects the functioning and quality of life of the person addicted to alcohol, as well as the members of his/ her family. Due to the changed dynamics in families facing alcoholism, children are in a particularly disadvantaged position. Parental alcoholism affects their physical and mental health, psychosocial functioning and educational achievement. The aim of this research is to gain insight into the children's role in family during the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence of the addicted parent.
Methodology
Since this research aims to gain insight into the children's role in families faced with alcoholism, a qualitative approach and some principles of grounded theory are used. In accordance with the aim of the research, the following research questions are formulated:
1. RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the children's role in families faced with parental alcoholism during the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence?
2. RESEARCH QUESTION: Does the children's role in families faced with parental alcoholism change during the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence and in what way?
3. RESEARCH QUESTION: Are there patterns in changing the children's role in families faced with parental alcoholism during the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence?
4. RESEARCH QUESTION: In what way does the children's role contribute to preserving homeostasis in families faced with parental alcoholism through the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence?
The sample includes 17 participants (9 female participants (53%) and 8 male participants (47%)) between the ages of 20 and 32. Their one parent has been voluntarily in the treatment in the club of treated alcoholics (CTA) from the area of the City of Zagreb, Karlovačka county and Koprivničko-Križevačka county at least the last 2 years with stable abstinence (i.e. without relapse). The sample includes the children of those CTA's members who were diagnosed with alcohol addiction (F10.2), who underwent inpatient rehab treatment and who did not join the CTA due to the court-ordered protective measure of mandatory treatment for alcohol addiction (according to the Croatian Law on protection against family violence). The sample includes children who has been living in their family from birth and who, at the time of the interview,
has been still living with both biological parents. The participants are not related to each other (brothers or sisters), at the time of the interview they had completed at least high school and had not established their own family until then. In 14 families the addicted parent is father, and in 3 families the addicted parent is mother.
During the interview the participants reflect on three periods they and their families went through, namely the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence of the addicted parent. The data collection method used in this research is in-depth face-to-face interview. In this research principles of the grounded theory are used: the coding method (initial, focused and theoretical), the principle of theoretical sensitivity, the method of constant comparison, the process of initial and theoretical sampling, and note-taking. Codes represent the meanings (thoughts and feelings) that children attach to the events in the family, relationships in the family (how he/ she sees his/ her own position in the family), communication, rules and other family members' roles, and the children's behavior (reactions) towards certain events in family.
Results
The results of this research show that during the period of drinking, treatment and abstinence of the addicted parent children take over different roles.
Their roles towards the addicted parent include care aimed at suppressing addiction, establishing and maintaining abstinence and support in the daily functioning. Their roles towards the non-addicted parent mean providing physical and emotional support, while children's role towards the family as a whole imply regulating the dynamics and processes and maintaining the functionality and integrity of the family. These roles decline over time, and the children's focus is sooner or later redirected to their own functioning and well-being.
Children's behavior in family is motivated by different dominant meanings they own, such as preserving the family, perceiving the non-addicted parent as a victim or fulfilling the tasks expected of the child.
The change in children's role in relation to the addicted parent can be noticed in gradual reduction in their involvement in suppression addiction and establishing abstinence, as well as the reduction in their instrumental support and retention of their emotional support for the addicted parent. In relation to the non-addicted parent, change in children's role is visible in terms of weakening their support and protection of the non-addicted parent. As for the change in cildren's role towards the family, it can be seen in releasing control over the dynamics and processes in the family and contributing to the functioning of the family in accordance with their age and capabilities. There is also a change in the children's reflection on their own
position in the family - the absence of the need to deny the existence of alcoholism in family, the continuous children's personal recovery, reflection on the harmful consequences of alcoholism in terms of personal functioning and the process of becoming independent from the family.
There are also three patterns of children's role change during the three mentioned periods, namely: proactive type of children, reactive type of children and distant type of children.
Proactive type of children is characterized by high involvement of children from the period of drinking to the period of abstinence of the addicted parent. Their roles are focused on caring for the addicted parent and the family as a whole. Roles towards the non-addicted parent are minimal or non-existent. Between the period of treatment and the period of abstinence of the addicted parent, the children's role in family declines. The children let go the tasks to other family members, returning to the role of an adult child in the family and emotionally differentiating themselves from the family.
Reactive type children are focused on saving the non-addicted parent and themselves during the period of the addicted parent's drinking. They perceive the non-addicted parent and themselves as the victim of the addicted parent. They show much less involvement in the direction of the family as a whole, and often advocate divorce. They show care towards the addicted parent more out of a sense of duty, while a part of the participants in this pattern never actually completely distance themselves from the addicted parent. As the time goes by, the reactive type of children reduces the engagement towards the non-addicted parent, and continues to exist in the family in the role of an adult child and completely turns to their own life.
The distanced type of children represents the absence of a change in the role of children, because this pattern includes participants who remain in the role of a child from the period of drinking until the period of abstinence of the addicted parent. This type of children performs the tasks expected of them without taking on any other roles or responsibilities. They want to remain children, usually without interfering in the dynamics between their parents. They show minimal engagement towards the addicted parent and the non-addicted parent, while gentle intervening towards the family as a whole is aimed to maintain family harmony. The essence of their narrative is that parental alcoholism simply didn't have much significance for their lives.
Children's engagement is based on their involvement in the parentification dynamics towards the addicted parent or the non-addicted parent or by refusing to enter into the parentification dynamics. This leads to the three different outcomes in families that contribute to the
preservation of family homeostasis: preservation of the family quality, the basic family functioning, and the separation of the child's system from the parent's system.
Conclusion
The main empirical contribution of this research is the acquisition of new empirical knowledge about the children's experiences of growing up in families where parental alcoholism is present. The theoretical contribution consists in the reproduction of a theoretical model that represents the children's roles in families faced with parental alcoholism and the dynamics of parentification, which helps to maintain homeostasis in these families and affects children's individual resilience. The main methodological contribution is the use of the grounded theory approach in domestic research within the social work framework. Regarding the practical implications of this research, knowledge about the children's roles in families where parental alcoholism is present can serve the purpose of designing support groups exclusively for children of alcohol addicted parents, modeled after the Alateen groups. |
