Browsing by Subject "perheviestintä"

A family member's excessive use of alcohol or drugs is a stressful and tragic situation which affects the whole family. Depending on the research method it has been estimated that there are between 18 000 to 30 000 drug users in Finland, and hence tens of thousands of friends and relatives who are affected by the situation. Previous research on substance abuse or dependence has concentrated either on the addict or to situations where the addicted family member is the parent. There has been significantly less research that has focused on the other members of the family who are affected by the substance misuse. The aim of this thesis was to examine what kind of competing discourses are present in a parent-child relationship when the child is or has been a drug user and how this competition manifests in the parents' speech. This study is grounded in Baxter's (2011) theory of competing discourses. According to this theoretical view, personal relationships are constructed and produced in interaction. The interaction between the parties of a relationship is filled with competing discourses by which the parties negotiate meaning together. The data of the study consists of individual and pair interviews with 11 mothers of drug users. The interviewees were recruited via two organizations which arrange peer support groups in the Helsinki area. The data was analyzed with Baxter's (2011) contrapuntal analysis method I identified the following pairs of competing discourses as the most relevant:1) the familiar child vs. the strange drug addict, 2) controlling vs. adjusting to distance and 3) openness vs. closedness. These three pairs of competing discourses seemed to be the most significant in the talk of the parents while they were describing their relationship with the child who has a drug addiction. In parents' talk different identities were constructed to their child in the interplay of the discourses of a familiar child and the strange drug user. In the discourses on controlling vs. adapting to distance the parents produced different kinds of meaning for example for "good parenting" versus "bad parenting". Also questions of parents' and child's autonomy were brought up in the competition of the discourses linked to distance and its management. Openness and closedness also alternated in the parents' stories. Through the interplay of openness and closedness the parents produced meanings for good communication in families as being open and honest. This view on "good" family communication as openness is congruent with the culturally dominant idea of "good" communication in families. Parents' talk also reflected the general discourses repeated in the media and society about drugs, drug users and addiction.