Marital and parenting relationships before the dependence on crack of a child

Abstract

The dynamics established between marital and parental relationships are reflected in the emotional development of the family which can express themselves in health but also in the emergence of emotional symptoms. In this sense, the aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of addiction to crack of a child on marital and parental dynamics according to the perceptions of parents. This is a qualitative exploratory study with three couples, chosen through their child’s crack addiction medical records at a rehabilitation clinic in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The data was submitted to content analysis and was interpreted under the systemic theoretical perspective. Three categories emerged from the data analysis: (a) conjugal and parental trajectory before the child’s addiction to crack; (b) parents’ issues and feelings related to their child’s addiction to crack; and (c) problems to conjugality and re-signifying relationships after a child’s addiction to crack. The study identified that crack dependency of a child reverberates negatively in the conjugal relation and involves a great amount of suffering for the parental pair. While attempting to solve the problem of crack addiction, the conjugal and parental couple has the opportunity to re-signify family relationships.