Review article

The Role of the Family in Development of Addictive Behaviors

Slavko Sakoman ; KB Sestre milosrdnice

Abstract

According to manifestations and consequences they cause to individuals, families and communities, addiction diseases (drugs, alcohol, tobacco, medications, gambling) should be considered as currently one of the most serious public health and socio-pathological problems of the young. Due to the moral crisis of the modern civilization, characterized by the rejection of traditional values and the crisis of the institution of marriage, an increasing number of families become the source of risk factors responsible for the development of addiction behavior in adolescents. In the world of imposed values (focus on money, consumerism, spending, entertainment and hedonism), it becomes more and more difficult to preserve family stability and health, and to protect children from negative external influences. The consequences of a dysfunctional family life, occurring in several modalities, are most visible during adolescence when the separation process is accelerated, hindered or obstructed. In unhealthy and troublesome families, parental supervision is inadequate and adolescents reject family control before they grow up and develop self-control behavior. The separation processes is accelerated by an increasingly liberal upbringing characterized by too much freedom, minimal supervision and unclear boundaries between the acceptable and the unacceptable behavior. In many families, parents make their children’s growing up and becoming independent harder by their obsessive and over-protective love. The entertainment industry, often connected with drugs and gambling, attracts the immature, frustrated and dissatisfied adolescents not prepared for the world of freedom. There are numerous reasons, motives, needs and life situations because of which a teenager, socializing with peers with risky behavior, may start and later continue with the addictive behavior. The addiction diseases (loss of control) primarily result from the nature (pleasure) of the remembered experience (the experience of “being drugged”), and from the simplicity, efficiency, and speed at which a person, by choosing such a type of behavior, can change their mood, state of consciousness and perception of reality. Family has an irreplaceable role in addiction prevention programs.

Keywords

addiction; drug abuse; adolescence; family; upbringing

Hrčak ID:

57570

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/57570

Publication date:

20.7.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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