Interactions and attachment in families with drug-addict adolescent: assessment and intervention in a community setting

Background: The latest, national and international, data about drug use in adolescence show a steady increase in the recruitment of substances by teenager. The issue is becoming a social problem and a growing number of therapeutic communities are defining specific treatment plans that take into account the particular life moment that adolescents are facing, in particular the separation-individuation process from parents. In this perspective is important to define when and how involving the parents in the therapeutic process (diagnosis, intervention, outcome, etc.). Therefore the study consists on a research-intervention focused on the role of the parental couple in the assessment process and treatment of drug-addicted adolescents in order to evaluate and promote parents’ active participation and support of their sons/daughters recovery. The specific aims of the study are: a) to investigate the quality of attachment representations of drug-addicted adolescents and their parents; b) to investigate the characteristics of family interactions in order to assess functional and pathological interactive configuration and their connections with adolescent’ pathological development. Method: Participants were 10 drug-addicted adolescents (15-21 years) in residential therapeutic community and their parents. Measures include: the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP; Fivaz-Depeursinge, Corboz-Warnery, 1999) in order to observe family interactions and the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, Main, 1985) administered to the adolescents and their parents in order to investigate internal representations of attachment. Results: preliminary results show that: a) the adolescents idealize and justify their parents, rejecting their negative characteristics but often describing events of parental neglect during their childhood; b) parents’ difficulties in family interactions involve both the marital and the co-parental level with particular regard to role-reversal dynamic involving the son/daughter in the family conflicts.