Kati Kataja

Trusting and misleading. Parents’ and children’s communication and negotiation about alcohol as described by teenagers

Abstract Background: Typically, research on parents’ and children’s interactions around alcohol issues focuses on how parenting styles and parents’ examples affect teenager’s drinking habits. In this paper, we approach the theme from the youngsters’ perspective. We ask how teenagers describe the interaction on alcohol-related issues with their parents and how they would like their parents to act during these interactions. Data and methods: The article applies the concept of trust, which is seen as a feature connecting all kinds of communities, and especially families. We pay attention to whether alcohol issues challenge trustful relations and give rise to contradictions and complications in the interactions between parents and children. Results: The analysis shows the ways how trust is maintained and challenged in teenagers? accounts of communication regarding alcohol with their parents. It also shows that although trust is tested in several ways, it is essential for teenagers. Even though teenagers tell how they can mislead their parents by using strategies that challenge trust, they nevertheless highlight the importance of trusting ties with parents. Teenagers do not exclude their parents from alcohol-related discussion but expect rules, communication and authority from them. Our data suggest that teenagers also want to protect their parents from disappointments caused by their own actions. Conclusions: A trusting parent–child relationship, based on dialog rather than opposition, seems to play a significant role in guiding teenagers’ alcohol-related attitudes and practices.

A virtual academy of polydrug use: Masters, novices and the art of combinations

Aims: Information technology has become an essential part of drug culture, providing a platform for lay knowledge concerning drug use. Due to the co-effects of different substances, making substance “combos” requires advanced skills to enhance pleasures and manage risks. In this study, we focussed on Finnish and Swedish online discussions as a context for learning and sharing experiences of combining substances. Methods: Taking influences from positioning theory, we used qualitative methods to map what kinds of mutual interactive positions related to the expertise in polydrug use online discussants take and how these positions are negotiated and reformulated in the online setting. We reflect these results through Howard S. Becker’s theory of social learning, according to which becoming a drug user is a process that occurs in interaction with other users, as the beginners need a model and advice from experienced users in order to claim their place in the users’ community. Results: In online forums, users discuss the risks and pleasures of combining drugs – on the one hand, in relation to different situations and, on the other hand, in relation to different competence positions. This occurs by asking for advice, presenting one’s knowledge, challenging others, repositioning oneself, defending one’s position or proving one’s competence. Conclusion: Online discussion forums constitute a kind of virtual academy where knowledge of the pleasures and risks of combining substances is produced and circulated, and where experienced masters mediate their expertise to less experienced novices.

Measuring Concurrent Polydrug Use in General Populations: A Critical Assessment

Background/Aims: Polydrug use is a complicated phenomenon that is measured in a wide variety of different ways. Using Finland as an example, we aimed to demonstrate how the prevalence and prevalence trends of concurrent polydrug use (CPU) varied in the general population based on the different measurements used. Methods: Population-based Drug Surveys conducted every 4 years during 1998-2014 were used. CPU was measured with different measurements: strict, medial and loose definition of CPU, which were based on different combinations of alcohol, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs and cigarettes used during the last 12 months/30 days. Logistic regression was used to estimate the p values for assessing trends. Results: Depending on the measurements used, the prevalence of CPU in 2014 varied between 2.0 and 18.7%. Different definitions also produced contradictory trends of CPU: there was a modest increase in prevalence if it was measured with a medial (p < 0.001) or strict (p = 0.054) definition, but when measured with the loose definition (only measure that included smoking), there was a decrease in prevalence (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of CPU varies greatly depending on the measurement used, as does the course of the prevalence trends. The concept of simultaneous polydrug use may capture the phenomenon better compared to the concept of CPU.

Risk-taking, control and social identities in narratives of Finnish polydrug users

Abstract Aims: Although polydrug use is increasingly recognized, knowledge of different patterns of such use remains scarce and underdeveloped. This study aims to identify the various patterns and cultural forms of polydrug use. Methods: The data used consist of interviews with 56 Finnish drug users from different backgrounds who were asked to describe their experiences of using and mixing multiple substances. The analysis was conducted by reconstructing polydrug use episodes into chronological narratives, with a focus on conscious risk-taking, control and identity formation. Findings: In our analysis, we recognized four key narrative types of polydrug use based on different levels of risk evaluation and management: “social recreation”, “self-discovery”, “hustling” and “addiction”. We interpret these narrative types as reflections of social identities shaped by different layers of drug culture and individual risk-taking strategies. Conclusions: Our findings illustrate that polydrug use is a highly diverse and heterogeneous phenomenon that ultimately operates based on the same cultural codes as drug subcultures in general, thereby representing cultural variation within the drug culture. What makes polydrug use special is that, instead of using individual substances, users combine multiple substances to achieve their goals.

How do People Attribute their Polydrug Use? A Mixed Methods Approach

ABSTRACT In Finland, polydrug use is generally seen as stigmatized deviant behavior. By means of the mixed methods approach, this article focuses on how people explain their polydrug use and what they attribute it to. Our findings show that these explanations vary according to sociodemography. Moreover, polydrug use is not always presented as planned and goal-oriented behavior, but also something that can occur due to sudden situational factors beyond the control of the person. Our findings implicate that the judgments regarding the deviance of polydrug use are contextual and different sociodemographic groups consider whether it is deviant behavior or not differently.

Parenthood re-discovered: Views of recovered parents

Abstract There is a growing body of research on the effects of parents’ alcohol and substance abuse problems on family members, which examines for example the effects and risks to children. In this article, we approach the theme from the perspective of parents who have recovered from alcohol and substance abuse problems. The research question in this study asks how recovered parents describe their re-discovered parenthood. The study is part of a wider “Growing up in the Finnish Drinking Culture” -project, conducted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. The qualitative data consist of individual, pair and group interviews with parents (N = 32). The parents were diagnosed with alcohol and or substance abuse problems and they all had undergone successful treatment. The data were analysed using subject position analysis, with six subject positions identified in parents’ accounts: Apprentice, Experienced; Emotion worker, Functional parent; Struggler and Optimist. Our study contributes to understanding how parenthood was regained following recovery and what experiences it entailed. It shows that a responsible life with the child and regaining parenthood are possibilities and realistic expectations following recovery.