Denna uppsats uppmärksammar föräldrar till vuxna barn med narkotikaproblematik och deras perspektiv på processen ”från bekymmer till problem”. Uppsatsen diskuterar denna problemdefinieringsprocess utifrån ett social interaktionistiskt perspektiv där betydelsefulla händelser och skeenden identifierats i föräldrarnas berättelser om barnets narkotikaproblem. Resultatet av studien visar hur den initiala fasen av att upptäcka ett problem kännetecknas av en ökad oro hos föräldrarna och en vag känsla av att någonting är fel. När ett narkotikaproblem har synliggjorts hos barnet påbörjar föräldrarna ett sökande efter svar på varför situationen uppstått. Initialt tenderar föräldrarna skuldbelägga sig själva för att sedan, i allt större utsträckning, individualisera problematiken. Barnet ses bära det främsta ansvaret, dock inte sällan med förklaringar som förmildrar omständigheterna. Uppsatsen uppmärksammar vidare hur barnets narkotikaproblematik påverkar föräldrarnas kontakt med sina sociala nätverk. En påverkan som främst yttrar sig i form av ett undvikande av personer som inte delar liknande erfarenheter. Slutligen diskuteras föräldrarnas kontakt med officiella myndigheter i deras försök att hitta lösningar och ett slut på barnets narkotikaproblem. Denna fas tydliggör problems formbara och förhandlingsbara natur. / This essay pays attention to parents to adult children with drug problems and their perspective on the process of defining a problem. The essay discusses this process through an interactionist perspective and significant events where identified in the parents stories about their children’s drug problem. The result shows how the initial stage of discovering a problem is characterized by an increasing concern and a vague feeling of something being wrong. When the child’s drug problem was identified, the parents started to search for an explanation to why the situation had emerged. Initially the parents tend to blame themselves for the situation but as time goes by the explanations shift and tend to get more individualized. The child is seen as carrying the main responsibility, but the parents’ explanations often mitigate the circumstances. The essay further discusses how the children’s drug problem affects the parents’ contact with their social network. The parents show insecurity in the relationship towards people who don’t have similar experiences which results in an avoidance of social contact. Finally parents’ contact with official authorities is examined. The parents seek authorities in their search for a solution and an end to the child’s drug problem. This phase of the process highlights the negotiable nature of problems.

The main purpose of this study was to highlight young people with alcohol and drug problems and their experiences of social and pedagogical exclusion. The data collected consist of interviews, in turn obtained from Ungdok. Ungdok is a documentation system used by the Social Services. It aims at documenting young people’s own accounts of their alcohol and drug use and how it affects different aspects of their lives. The study’s focus was on how young people with a variety of substance use describe their experiences of exclusion in school settings. Initially the results were analyzed with the help of concepts that are used to identify various aspects of school difficulties, the significance of them, and what the consequences might be for the youngsters. The analysis also focuses on the elements of exclusion that the youngsters ascribe to the school setting, as well as peer relations, and their own family ties. A large part of the interviewees, roughly 1/3 of  2169 young people with alcohol and drug problems, state that they have no school related problems, which perhaps could be attributed to a more normalized use of so-called party drugs, and/or cannabis. 2/3 of the interviewees however, state that they have experienced, or are experiencing school related problems. A lot of the young people whose accounts were used in this study state that their drug use was most prevalent in transition periods, even though alcohol use generally increase when adolescents reach adulthood. A finding of this study is that about half of the young people interviewed consider themselves unwanted or as failures. Another finding is that approximately 1/5 of the youngsters’ accounts of school related difficulties relate to ADHD or other neuropsychiatric difficulties or diagnoses. Physical illness is in a few cases also given as a reason for school related difficulties. Other problematic areas described by the young people relate to difficulties with concentration, and those are often described in terms of comorbidities or that the individual devalues him or herself. The results of the study show that school related social exclusion appear on both a structural, interpersonal, as well as an individual level. Two distinct approaches also become apparent in the results. The first approach emphasizes that exclusion is the result of the school’s, or the educational institution’s failure to fully embrace inclusive practices. The second approach visible in the results takes a more individualistic view on exclusion, often resulting in the young person putting blame on him or herself for being the very reason they’re experiencing social, and/or pedagogical exclusion. The study’s results raise questions as to what extent an individual child/young person can be expected to take responsibility for the parental level of education and the potential disadvantage this brings the young person. Other questions of interest that may be raised in relation to the results of this study is to what extent a child or young person can be expected to take responsibility for the potentially negative consequences of an unequal and/or segregated school system. Is it the education system, the school, or the pupils that ought to take the responsibility and action to guarantee the educational support that all pupils have the right to? This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by providing knowledge of how young people with alcohol and drug problems describe their own experiences of school related difficulties, and to what extent these experiences in various degrees have contributed to a sense of social and pedagogical exclusion in school settings.

Denna uppsats uppmärksammar föräldrar som utsatts för våld av sina vuxna barn med narkotikaproblem. Olika aspekter av våldsutsattheten belyses. Syftet är att undersöka hur vanlig utsattheten är, hur sambandet till barnets narkotikaproblem ser ut och hur föräldrarna själva förklarar utsattheten. Särskild fokus riktas på vilken roll problematisk användning av narkotika som enskild faktor har. Såväl psykiskt, fysiskt, ekonomiskt, materiellt som emotionellt våld undersöks.Resultaten talar för att våldsutsattheten samvarierar med flera faktorer hos barnet, vilka faktorer som har betydelse varierar mellan de olika våldsformerna. När det gäller den aktuella våldsutsattheten, det vill säga där våldshandlingen utförts under det senaste året, framträder tydligast skillnader mellan barn utan, respektive med, aktuella narkotikaproblem – statistisk signifikans föreligger för alla undersökta våldsformer. Utöver barnets aktuella narkotikaproblem är aktuell psykisk problematik hos barnet signifikant när det gäller psykiskt, fysiskt och emotionellt våld och barnets ålder signifikant för ekonomiskt och materiellt våld. Föräldrarnas förklaringar till utsattheten speglar i mångt och mycket resultaten från de statistiska analyserna. / This essay pays attention to parents who have been abused by their adult children with drug problems. Various aspects of the abuse are highlighted. The aim is to investigate how common the exposure is, the correlation to the child’s drug problems and how the parents themselves explain the exposure. Special attention is paid to problematic drug use as a single factor. Furthermore, both psychological, physical, financial, material and emotional abuse are investigated. The results indicate that parents exposure to abuse covaries with several child- related factors, however which factors that are important varies between the different forms of abuse. In addition to the child’s current drug problem, the child’s current mental health problem is significant in terms of psychological, physical and emotional abuse and the child’s age is significant for economic and material abuse. Regarding current exposure, that is, where the abuse occurred during the past year, the most apparent differences were observed between children without and children with current drug problems – statistical significance exists for all forms of abuse. In many ways, the parents’ explanations for their exposure reflects the results of the statistical analyzes.