Family key against drug abuse
Academic believes battle against addiction begins early in child’s life
DR EDNA Rich firmly believes the fight against drug abuse, especially in children, begins at the family level – the most powerful setting in any child’s life. It’s an idea that drove her to earn her a PhD from UWC’s Department of Child and Family Studies last year.
Globally, illicit drug abuse among youth is recognised as one of the greatest health and social problems – and like other countries, South Africa is battling to combat this problem.
Rich is a lecturer in the Child and Family Studies Unit at UWC, and also a wife, mother of three children between the ages of 16 and 37, and grandmother of a 9-yearold. Her research on Substance Abuse in the Family stemmed from her passion for strengthening family well-being (a passion that also led her to qualify as an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene). She believes that families are the bedrock of our society, and that healthy families are one of the main ways we can build healthier communities. For that to happen, we need to be concerned with issues that threaten the family well-being – such as substance abuse in families.
“What makes me excited about this field is my belief that young people are our future, and we need to better understand the reasons and the risk factors that influence their drug use decisions and behaviour.
“Drug abuse at an early age has been associated with various problems, including risky sexual behaviours, teenage pregnancies, school drop-out; health and mental problems, gangsterism and crime. I wanted my research to be crucial to the development of effective prevention strategies. “My study reveals that there is no one reason why young people take drugs, but rather a myriad of interrelated reasons on various levels that combine to lead up to their drug-taking behaviour.
“My findings also indicate that the family system and sub-systems are major determining factors for adolescent substance abuse. The family is thus a good place to start with primary prevention endeavours.
“The results of this research lend support for prevention initiatives that strengthen family functioning, particularly the parent or caregiver-child relationship – initiatives that encourage live-in and non-live-in fathers to be involved in the lives of their children, reduce parental or caregiver substance abuse, and focus on adolescents’ self-esteem and ability to resist peer pressure. By changing family practices and the ways in which families function, we can change our communities, one family at a time.”
She identified reasons for drug-taking behaviour. “My research identified clear associations between drug use by youth and negative family functioning, such as parental/caregivers substance abuse, absent fathers, domestic violence, and compromised parent-child relationships.
Other risk factors included a lack of adult after-school supervision, association with drug-using peers, school drop-out, and easy access to drugs within the neighbourhood or community. “My study also revealed that simply educating learners about the dangers of drug abuse, does not, on its own, prevent them from using anyway – as often the source of their pain and unhappiness lies in their family systems.”