Self-Perceptions and Benefit Finding Among Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders and Their Caregivers: A Qualitative Analysis Guided by Social Identity Theory of Cessation Maintenance

• Date: 01 October 2020
• Author: Jennifer Carrano,Valerie A. Earnshaw,David Menino,Natalie M. Brousseau,Sharon Levy,Laura M. Bogart,John F. Kelly
• DOI: 10.1177/0022042620919368
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042620919368

Journal of Drug Issues

2020, Vol. 50(4) 410 –423

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042620919368

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Article

Self-Perceptions and Benefit

Finding Among Adolescents

With Substance Use Disorders

and Their Caregivers: A

Qualitative Analysis Guided

by Social Identity Theory of

Cessation Maintenance

Natalie M. Brousseau1, Valerie A. Earnshaw1,

David Menino2, Laura M. Bogart3,

Jennifer Carrano1, John F. Kelly4,5,

and Sharon Levy2,4

Abstract

Substance use disorders (SUDs) among young people have been linked with a range of adverse

health consequences that can be successfully mitigated with early SUD treatment. According to

the Social Identity Theory of Cessation Maintenance (SITCM), psychosocial processes including

self-perceptions and benefit finding evolve with treatment, influencing recovery-based identities

that can facilitate treatment success. However, this process has only been documented with

adults; thus, the current study seeks to characterize these psychosocial processes among

young people in SUD treatment and their caregivers. Nineteen young people receiving SUD

treatment and 15 caregivers were interviewed about treatment experiences including negative

self-perceptions, positive self-perceptions, and benefit finding. Results support the SITCM:

Adolescents described escaping negative self-perceptions associated with the “substance use

self” identity and strengthening a new “recovery self” identity characterized by positive self-

perceptions and benefit finding. Caregivers described how extrinsic sources of support can help

mitigate negative self-perceptions.

Keywords

addiction, adolescence, recovery, substance use disorder, treatment

1University of Delaware, Newark, USA

2Boston Children’s Hospital, MA, USA

3RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA

4Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

5Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA

Corresponding Author:

Natalie M. Brousseau, University of Delaware, 111, Alison Hall West, Newark, DE 19716, USA.

Email: nmb@udel.edu

919368JODXXX10.1177/0022042620919368Journal of Drug IssuesBrousseau et al.

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