Insecure Attachment Contributes to the Rise of Substance Abuse among Adolescents: Lived Experiences through the Eyes of the Adolescents
Introduction
Compared to other mammals, human beings tend to have extended periods of dependency on their caregivers. People depend on their caregivers not just for safety and basic needs such as food but also love, connection, and emotional connection. The existence of resilient emotional relationships and love between caregivers and children often translates to secure attachment. The presence of such attachments repeatedly assures children sufficient access to their caregivers for care and comfort, especially during distress. With secure attachments, children know that they have a haven in this big and sophisticated world. Such attachments are vital for developing various critical features of personality, such as reliance, adaptability, empathy, and the capacity to trust other people. Healthy or secure attachments impact a person’s ability to manage stress and associated emotions. Moreover, effective verbal, non-verbal, and proper inter- and intrapersonal functioning depends on these attachments.
The critical factor surrounding these attachments that often relates to addiction is issues with the management of stress. Secure attachments enable people to manage autonomy and take charge of their lives and surroundings. Insecure attachments may instigate the development of abnormal responses or unhealthy coping mechanisms to address stress and related issues. Lacasa et al. (2015) state that the longstanding effects that relate to these attachment styles may entail substance abuse, anger management problems, homeless, and other forms of risky behavior. The issues that often accompany these situations exacerbate the incapacity to handle stress. Hence, pushing people to look for release in substances such as alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and prescription drugs.
One view of substance abuse, especially among adolescents, contends that it is an attachment syndrome. Evidence suggests that insecure attachments serve as a risk factor for substance abuse (Lewis & Dula, 2016). People who experience challenges in developing healthy attachments are more likely to substitute alcohol and other substances for deficient intimate relationships (Hirsch, 2019). These findings demonstrate why lonely people are more susceptible to the use of drugs. The use of drugs may be a self-medicating strategy against internal discomfort and emptiness emotions. The crux of being a human being entails proper interactions with others in a social environment. From birth, humans are driven instinctively to conform and close attachments with others. Secure relationships provide people with a sense of security, comfort, and security. Therefore, the quality of close relationships that people have during the early stages of development can be critical sources of resilience.
The establishment and preservation of healthy relationships play a critical role in the overall welfare of human beings. People tend to find joy and contentment when reunified with loved ones, and usually feel sad in their absence. Moreover, the emotional habits acquired in childhood are later replicated in adult relationships through the power of projective identification. According to Chambers (2017), individuals’ interpersonal interactions may adapt to internal experiences and expectations. For example, diffident adults recognize ambiguous interpersonal events such as momentary inattention as signs of rejection. They may quickly respond through defensive reactions related to withdrawal or anger. Such situations indicate that early parental attachments’ quality continues to play a vital role in people’s overall welfare. Unfortunately, the ability to relate well with others is obstructed during childhood for some people.
The association between insecure attachment and psychopathology, substance use disorders (SUD) included is a widely researched topic. Most of these studies suggest the existence of positive links between the organization of attachment and mental health. For instance, Lacasa et al. (2015) define adolescence as a critical phase of emotional adjustment, whereby people develop strategies for regulating their feelings, memories, and thoughts. Notably, these emotions are not only related to attachment but also grounded on particular representations and memories of their associations with present and past authority figures (Schindler & Bröning, 2015). When adolescents experience insecure attachment, they experience vulnerabilities that predispose them to substance abuse as injudicious attempts at emotion regulation (Mansoer et al., 2018). Like attachment associations, alcohol, and drugs act as an external means of regulating adverse feelings (Schindler, 2019). The extent that people are unable to develop longstanding, gratifying relations defines their emotional deficiency and vulnerability towards substance abuse as a compensatory behavior for this shortage.
According to Estévez et al. (2017), substance abuse becomes habitual for adolescents with insecure attachments as it provides temporary relief of the emotions of inadequacy. After this short-lived relief, adolescents go back to their feelings of inadequacy. For example, Hirsch (2019) associates insecure attachments among college-going students with mild alcohol consumption and other drugs to cope with stress. For older populations, those struggling with addiction and drinking problems are more likely to suffer social isolation and loneliness (Fridman, 2019). Insecure attachments contribute to substance abuse as drugs and alcohol provide adolescents with a defensive strategy to direct their attention to external problems. They abuse drugs to compensate for feelings of insignificance, vulnerability, and helplessness (Fairbairn et al., 2018). As opposed to balancing these emotions, substance abuse worsens this insecurity further by exerting a destructive impact on close relationships.
In the contemporary world, where people tend to believe in something only after seeing some form of evidence, the study topic is essential in validating research questions and expand human knowledge. The subject is necessary empirically as it will enable the researchers to draw conclusions based on verifiable evidence. With the use of qualitative methods, the researchers will gather in-depth information to understand a particular phenomenon in a specific population. In this case, the phenomenon to be researched is the role that insecure attachment plays in instigating the development of substance abuse issues among adolescents (Meulewaeter et al., 2019). Attachment research has repeatedly demonstrated the impact of early social interaction on emotional welfare in later life. Children are more emotionally resilient and able to handle adverse circumstances along their journey to adulthood when exposed to secure attachments.
The theoretical significance of this topic lies in the researchers’ capacity to perceive the limits of generalizations made. Theoretically, the subject will support the specification of the critical variables that influence the phenomenon of insecure attachment and its impact on substance abuse behaviors. The topic is vital theoretically as it highlights the need to assess how the identified key variables might differ and the specific conditions that could trigger these variations. For children who lack secure attachments while growing up, these challenges may manifest in addictive behaviors during adulthood (Meulewaeter et al., 2019). Insecure attachment experienced during childhood ultimately results in heightened stress-motivated actions that have adverse consequences during adolescence. The link between insecure attachments and substance abuse adds to addiction’s multidimensional core (Meulewaeter et al., 2019). When people lack sufficient affection early in life, they are more likely to turn to substances than confiding in loved ones.
Purpose of the Study
This qualitative research design using the phenomenological approach study explores how insecure attachments contribute to the development of substance abuse issues during adolescence. Inadequate access to love and affection during the early stages of life may instigate the development of maladaptive coping patterns. Behaviors such as substance use compensate for the feelings of inadequacy in adolescents who have been raised in insecure environments. The researchers seek to answer the following research questions to comprehend the study phenomenon further:
Does inadequate affection from parents’ impact peer relationships and increase maladaptive behavior among adolescents?
Do adolescents with attachment challenges adopt maladaptive coping skills across multiple life situations?
Compounded with insecure attachment and substance abuse, are adolescents at an increased risk for portraying criminal conditions that transition into adulthood?
Does insecure attachment with primary caregivers increase adolescents struggling with substance abuse issues while diminishing the vital child-parent connection?
The researchers hope to understand the relationship between insecure attachments and substance abuse based on adolescents’ direct experiences. They will achieve this through in-depth or qualitative interviews with adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years. Since in-depth interviews tend to be time-consuming, mainly when the researcher is conducted alone, the appropriate sample size for this study will be between 10 and 12 participants. The participants will be recruited via social networking platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Besides online platforms, recruitment will occur through substance abuse treatment agencies, co-occurring issues related to substance abuse or dependence, and insecure attachment. Due to Covid-19 related restriction in New Jersey that prohibit face-to-face meetings to minimize the risk of contracting this highly contagious disease, the interviews will be conducted online via Zoom.
Nature of the Study
This study will observe a qualitative methodology to build a holistic, and mostly narrative description to inform the understanding of the study phenomenon’s research. A qualitative design primarily involves an inductive process of organizing information into classes and identifying relationships among the categories (Haradhan, 2018). Often, a qualitative design works out under a combination of interviews, documented reviews, and observations (Moser & Korstjens, 2017). In the process of qualitative research, the interaction between the different study variables is vital. Researchers gather detailed information through open-ended and semi-structured questions, which provide direct quotations (Archibald et al., 2015). Besides interviews, observations, and case studies, qualitative data may be gathered through focus groups and document analysis. Although researchers are often encouraged to combine two data collection methods, this study will only utilize interviews (Archibald et al., 2015). The combination of two or more techniques increases study credibility. However, this study will focus on interviews alone for practical reasons.
Phenomenology is the specific approach to qualitative design that will be used in this study. This approach focuses on the cohesion of lived experiences within a particular group. This approach’s underlying goal is to reach a description of the nature of a specific phenomenon (Nicholls, 2019). Typically, interviews will be conducted with a group of people with first-hand experiences or knowledge about a particular event or situation. In this case, the researchers intend to understand adolescents’ lived experiences who did not access sufficient secure attachments during childhood (Englander, 2016). Through these experiences, the researchers will perceive whether insecure attachments with primary caregivers such as parents predispose adolescents to maladaptive conduct related to substance abuse. After gathering data, the researchers will assess the information and cull it into themes to create meaning clusters.
A qualitative methodology is the best fit for this study as it will allow the researchers to understand the participants’ perceptions about the research phenomenon. The method is specifically useful in cases where researchers seek to comprehend a particular group of individuals’ specific experiences. The study’s target population is adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years. The researchers hope to understand the relationship between insecure attachments and substance abuse based on the lived experiences of adolescents. Like other qualitative research types, the methodology encompasses direct efforts by the researchers to understand the phenomenon in society (Sutton & Austin, 2015). Qualitative methods entail questions on straightforward descriptions from individuals who have experienced the research phenomenon. A qualitative methodology tends to be useful when researchers seek to comprehend the precise details regarding a particular phenomenon (Haradhan, 2018). In this case, the method will allow the researcher to understand adolescents’ experiences who have suffered insecure attachments and whether this pushed them into substance abuse.
The phenomenological approach concentrates on the similarity of lived experiences within a specific group (Englander, 2016). A phenomenological design fits this study’s purpose since the researcher seeks to develop a description of the nature of the phenomenon of insecure attachment and how it relates to substance abuse. The specific group to be studied in this research are adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years. Another feature of the phenomenological design that resonates with this study is the use of interviews (Englander, 2016). The primary technique for collecting data in this exploration will be in-depth interviews. The interviews will attempt to answer broad questions related to what the participants have experienced in terms of the phenomenon and the specific situations that have typically instigated these experiences.
Research Questions
RQ1: Does inadequate affection from parents’ impact peer relationships and increase maladaptive behavior among adolescents?
RQ1a: What is the role of parental affection?
While parents live busy and stressful lives, it is clear that taking a break from these ongoing concerns and giving children big loving hugs is one of the most critical things to do. Studies conducted over the last decade underscore the relationship between parental affection during early years and happiness and health in the future. Raby et al. (2017) assert that science supports the notion that love and warmth, when expressed by parents during childhood, lead to longstanding positive outcomes for children. Outcomes such as increased academic performance, few psychological issues, reduced behavior problems, and higher self-esteem tend to emanate from this form of affection. Contrarily, children whose parents are not affection tend to have a reduced sense of self-esteem and feel more alienated (Feizi et al., 2019). Feelings of alienation and aggression may push these children to embrace harmful coping mechanisms related to drugs. Although all parents want happiness for their children, they tend to overlook the essential aspects to offer for the children to feel loved. Lack of parental love, warmth, and affection can instigate stress among children and create health risks such as substance abuse.
RQ1b: Does inadequate affection affect peer relationships among adolescents?
The significance of peers often increases during the phase from the middle to late childhood. During this period, children experience increased growth in interpersonal abilities due to the development of peer relationships. According to Zarra-Nezhad et al. (2018), peer relationships are an absolute necessity for healthy cognitive development, social welfare, and socialization. Apart from offering children a sense of self-value, they provide personal validation and function as a protective function. Moreover, friendships promote new abilities, learning, and nurtures development growth through shared cultures (Llorca et al., 2017). Peer acceptance, which denotes likability or acceptance by members of a specific peer group, is a critical development milestone in early development. Aside from increasing children’s psychological welfare, peer acceptance instigates improved academic performance and stimulates efficacious adaptation in the school context (Zarra-Nezhad et al., 2018). However, some children fail to establish these positive links with their peers, and parental affections play a critical part in these failures (Llorca et al., 2017). Children who are unable to build working peer relationships with others are more susceptible to various psychological and developmental challenges during childhood and adolescence through to adulthood.
RQ1c: Does inadequate affection increase maladaptive behavior among adolescents?
Avoidance behavior and social isolation, are maladaptive coping strategies often demonstrated by adolescents with substance abuse issues. More adolescents with substance abuse issues report turning to social withdrawal when confronted with issues than their counterparts who do not engage in drugs. Recent research on the risk factors for behavioral problems in children has mainly focused on family and parenting as the predictors for maladaptive conduct. For instance, Briere et al. (2017) suggest parenting style to be part of the significant factors contributing to maladaptive behavior in children. Parenting styles are often divided into permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative categories. Strict parents tend to force their children into blind obedience and continually monitor their activities. Contrarily, authoritative parenting involves treating children with authority that allows for flexibility in behavior (Cornella-Font et al., 2018). Permissive parents appear to be more tolerant of the misbehavior of children and usually ignore misconduct. Children raised in the authoritarian and permissive environment do not access the required affection, which may instigate maladaptive behavior as a coping strategy.
RQ2: Do adolescents with attachment challenges adopt maladaptive coping skills across multiple life situations?
RQ2a: What are attachment challenges?
Attachment can be defined as the never-ending emotional closeness that binds families to prepare children for autonomy and future responsibilities as adults. Developmental theorists such as Bowlby suggest that early attachment experiences establish not only internal working models but also longstanding templates for preconceptions of both the reliability and value of relationships. Attachment enables children to access the secure base, which is vital for exploration, learning, and relating well with others (Feizi et al., 2019). The importance of attachment also extends to the concepts of safety, adaptability, resilience, and stress regulation. The attachment patterns, as developed by children, often depend on those exhibited by their parents. The attachment of both parents and children affects the later’s behavioral, developmental, psychological, and physical welfare. When attachment challenges such as inadequate affection and broken bonds occur, children may compensate for the breakdowns with negative habits related to social isolation and aggression (Feizi et al., 2019). In the long-term, they may develop negative coping patterns such as substance use to compensate for inadequate attachment.
RQ2b: Do adolescents with these challenges adopt maladaptive coping skills?
Increasingly, attachment organization appears to be a vital aspect of both emotional and behavioral development during adolescence. Several studies have associated secure attachment to overall positive outcomes in adolescence (Schoeps et al., 2020). These outcomes include more significant social adaptation levels, higher capacity for friendship, romantic relationships, and more flexible ways of coping. Contrarily, insecure attachments are more likely to result in adverse outcomes. Established attachment organizations extend to adulthood and shape the capacity to handle stressful conditions (Cornella-Font et al., 2018). Therefore, the specific attachment can non-consciously define how and whether people perceive stress. Coping strategies tend to manifest as typical conscious reactions to such perceived pressure. Therefore, coping strategies may be considered as manifestations of the attachment system. In his study, Fridman (2019) established that people tend to exhibit maladaptive unproductive coping strategies such as withdrawal and negative emotions when they experience attachment challenges.
RQ2c: Does this behavior occur across multiple life situations?
Childhood experiences are vital to emotional development and welfare across multiple life situations. Parents are primary attachment figures, and they play a critical part in how people experience the world. According to Fletcher et al. (2015), parents lay the foundation of what the world will appear for their children. They help their children define whether the world is a safe world to explore and pursue emotional risks. Therefore, attachment problems such as growing up in physically, emotionally, or sexually abusive households compromises children’s capacity to develop the required skills for independence (Schoeps et al., 2020). The absence of the safety net of secure attachments results in a situation where children develop to become adults who struggle with emotions of low self-worth and emotion regulation problems. Moreover, they have a heightened risk of developing stress and adopting maladaptive patterns such as substance abuse as coping strategies throughout their adult life.
RQ3: Compounded with insecure attachment and substance abuse, are adolescents at an increased risk for portraying criminal behavior that transition into adulthood?
RQ3a: What is the relationship between insecure attachment and substance abuse?
Compared to other mammals, human beings tend to have a more extensive dependency on their caregivers. Secure attachments develop when resilient emotional connections and lover occur between caregivers and children, from infancy. Children are assured of turning to their caregivers for both care and comfort during distress with such attachments. Moreover, they perceive their caregivers as havens in the big and sophisticated world (Cornella-Font et al., 2018). Such connections support the regulation of children’s nervous systems that inform excellent in all areas of life. Children with secure attachment histories tend to score highly in independence, ego resilience, and self-esteem. Moreover, they are better able to enjoy themselves and interact positively with their peers. Conversely, insecure attachments instigate the development of abnormal or unhealthy coping strategies when children are confronted with stress (Cornella-Font et al., 2018). The longstanding repercussions of these attachments often relate to substance abuse and other risky behaviors.
RQ3b: Are adolescents at an increased risk of portraying criminal conduct?
Human attachment occurs in three phases. During the first stage, which often occurs between the ages of birth and six months, involves the recognition of primary caregivers. Apart from orienting, infants start to recognize their mother’s face during this phase. This stage marks an interactive relationship between children and their mothers, often characterized by mutual smiling reactions. The next step occurs between six months and three years. At this stage, attachment revolves around the setting of goals. Children set goals to be close enough to their mothers and use them as a secure base. The final stage, which starts at around three years, often involves continued creation of reciprocal relationships between children and their parents (Schoeps et al., 2020). Throughout the three stages, contact and proximity generate a sense of security within children. Therefore, inadequate access to this vital security base may be protested in the form of delinquency.
RQ3c: Does this conduct transition to adulthood, or does it change at some point?
Insecure and inadequate attachment to parents is often linked to the development of delinquency. Over the years, researchers have explored attachment links between children and their parents, both during adolescence and young adulthood. From infancy, children not only internalize but also organize patterns of associating with others. Authority or attachment figures such as parents provide them with a secure base for constructing ideas and expectations about other people’s interactions. Several meta-analyses analyzing the correlation between insecure attachment and problematic conduct in children have been conducted. For instance, Delvecchio et al. (2016) established the existence of a significant association between disorganized attachment and externalizing problematic conduct. Despite these definite links, these studies often fail to show whether these problems persist through adulthood or they stop at some point. The extent to which the relationship between criminal conduct and attachment changes across the lifespan is unclear. Static theorists postulate that criminal behavior remains constant over time since delinquency variations are based on individual differences. Contrarily, their dynamic counterparts believe in the possibility of change.
RQ4: Do insecure attachments with primary caregivers increase the number of adolescents struggling with substance abuse issues while diminishing the vital child-parent connection?
RQ4a:
What are insecure attachments?
Insecure attachments denote a relationship style whereby the bond is adulterated by distress. Often, insecure attachments manifest in the form of reluctance in the relationship and other forms of mixed emotions. Rejection and dependence are excellent examples of these reactions. Most researchers believe that these attachments develop in early childhood and emanate from the relationships that people develop with the people they trust during their early years of development. The first few bonds that individuals create during childhood usually lay the foundation for the form they make later in life. People with insecure attachments tend to anticipate the possibility of being abandoned or harmed in some way. Insecure attachment styles often occur in the form of disorganization, ambivalence, and avoidance. Disorganized attachments are usually shared among children who have suffered abuse, such as physical punishment, neglect, or aggression. Ambivalent attachment tends to manifest in the form of a strong desire for affection and closeness. As for avoidant attachment, it entails challenges in creating close relationships, and it often leads to intense emotional pain.
RQ4b: Do such attachments with primary caregivers increase the number of adolescents struggling with substance abuse issues?
The various forms of insecure attachment styles, as discussed earlier, are linked to interpersonal issues, emotional distress, and substance abuse. In their study, Tedgård et al. (2018) suggested that marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines users were more likely to fear intimacy. Also, these users appeared to have insecure attachments styles related to ambivalence and avoidance. The links between attachment style and substance abuse often manifest in the form of the tendency to use drugs as exhibited by those with insecure attachments (Bachmann et al., 2019). Compared to those portraying secure attachments, those with insecure bonds in romantic relationships tend to use alcohol and drugs such as marijuana. Likewise, those with heightened attachment anxiety are at a greater vulnerability of suffering adverse repercussions from substance abuse. Anxious attachment styles may be characterized by increased use of drugs for stress-motivated concerns (Bachmann et al., 2019). This relationship is not only multi-faceted but also has not been established yet. However, researchers believe that those with insecure attachments may prefer using drugs or alcohol rather than embracing healthy coping strategies or confiding in loved ones.
RQ4c: Do such attachments diminish the vital child-parent connection?
Researchers have extensively studied the harmful impact that parental emotional neglect and insecure attachments can have on children. Apart from predisposing children to maladaptive coping patterns such as substance abuse, insecure attachments may diminish the critical child-parent bond. Also denoted as secure attachment, strong bonds with parents are essential to good health and positive outcomes during adulthood (Gidhagen, 2018). When sufficient attachments between children and their caregivers are lacking, the former develops with an impaired capacity to view the world as safe. They often doubt the genuineness of others in caring for them. Factors such as unrealistic parental expectations, behavior, neglect, emotional abuse, verbal, and physical trauma teach children that their environment is not safe (Gidhagen, 2018). Consequently, neglected children tend to develop insecure attachment styles that often instigate serious struggles in handling any form of relationships. Moreover, these attachments compromise the vital child-parent bond. Parents’ lack of good affection and tenderness may push children to compensate for these feelings with maladaptive coping strategies. Engagement in malicious behavior further compromises the capacity of these children to amend this vital bond.
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