Perceptions of adolescents living with parental alcoholism

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the experience of parental alcoholism from an adolescent's perspective. The stories of five adolescents were used to generate descriptions and explanations about the phenomenon. The study was exploratory in nature and was conducted using a qualitative research design. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews with each adolescent. Field notes, personal reflections, and transcripts of all interviews made over the course of the research process, constituted the data for analysis. Four significant themes emerged from the data, which illuminated and provided a fuller understanding of the perceptions of adolescents living with parental alcoholism. The initial theme, 'The Nightmare', described the adolescents' memories and what it was like for them growing up with parental alcoholism. The second theme, 'The Lost Dream', explored their recognition of loss in terms of the experiences of the nightmare. The third theme, 'The Dichotomies', explained the daily struggles between what the adolescents thought, what they felt, and how their thoughts and feelings influenced their behaviour. The fourth theme, 'The Awakening', described the adolescents' recognition of their present responsibilities, and their understanding about their pasts, which enabled them to begin to let go and move on. The study concludes with reflections on the significance, meaning, and interrelatedness of the identified themes, and a discussion of findings and implications. The main findings were the resilience and strength of the participants, the uniqueness of each of their stories, and the therapeutic benefit to the participants from the opportunity to tell their stories. An understanding of the individual and contextual nature of adolescents' perceptions of parental alcoholism provides professional caregivers with new opportunities to offer specialized services to adolescents and their families.