Barn med foreldre i rusbehandling: En kvalitativ studie basert på intervju med foreldre om representasjonene av deres barn og relasjonen dem i mellom

Abstract

Children who have parents with a drug addiction is the main issue in this paper. The importance of early intervention and further research into the topic of childhood-at-risk due to parental and family problems are also relevant. In this study the population is related with numerous high-risk factors and a vulnerability to disorganized attachment.

The purpose of this study is to look into the parents’ representations of their child and the parentchild relationship. A qualitative research interwiew is used. Parents are interviewed about their inner working model of the child after minimum six months in parent-infant treatment. One must take into consideration that the population consist of only four informants. This makes it difficult to generalize.

There is a reason to believe that the representations of the child and the parent-child relationship can have a tendency to variations.

The mentalizing perspective is an important part of the theoretical framework in the context where the parents and children live for a period of their life. This perspective has relevance for the caregiver to establish a secure attachment with the child. The study shows treatment in institution can give the parents a language and understanding related to their child, that doesn´t need to be internalised. On the other hand, the same language and understanding can provide the parents an opportunity to expand the representations of their child and the parent-child relationship.