Vécu familial et développement des comportements addictifs chez l’adolescent

Abstract

This dissertation answers the question of how adolescents' experiences within the family help to understand the development of addictive behaviour. It found that family processes common to the various addictive pathologies or specific to substance buse or dependence, or eating disorders. These empirical results show the existence of common family dysfunctions: in particular, there is a disturbance in the regulation of family interpersonal distance in both eating disorders and substance dependence. In fact, a high level of interpersonal dependence in family ties and a similar profile in parental care, characterized by rejection and control behaviours, were observed. Similarly, measures of the level of cohesion or intergenerational entanglement highlight a lack of emotional closeness in family ties among adolescents with addictive behaviours. The answer to this question gave rise to the following main hypothesis: Family dysfunction contributes to the development of addictive behaviour in adolescents. In order to test this hypothesis, we met adolescent at the Centre la Vie (an addiction care, support and prevention center), with whom we conducted semi-structured interviews. The information gathered was subjected to a content analysis. Our findings show that the various family crises, globalisation and globalisation of behaviour have led to structural changes in families. These changes have altered living conditions and the relationship between young people and the family. We are talking about the erosion or collapse of certain social ties. Changes in parental behaviour have an impact on young people. As a result, the integration of adolescents involves a degree of individualisation, which can have certain advantages and disadvantages. Changes in family models should be taken into account insofar as adolescents are affected by these issues.