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Identifier

000419683

Title

Ουσιοεξάρτηση, μητρότητα και στίγμα : περιπτώσεις γυναικών υπό το πρίσμα της διαθεματικότητας

Alternative Title

Substance use, motherhood and stigma: cases of women under the prism of intersectionality

Author

Λαζάρου, Δανάη

Thesis advisor

Τριλίβα, Σοφία

Reviewer

Γεωργάκα Ευγενία
Τζανάκης Μανόλης

Abstract

The international literature in the last decade has highlighted women's experience of addiction. The literature depicts how the consumption of substances differs between genders because of a host of medical, psychological, social and cultural reasons. The number of drug- dependent women seeking therapeutic help is smaller than that of men, and this has been attributed to the double stigma accompanying the women's addiction problems. This stigma appears to arise mainly from the violation of social norms, associated with gendered roles, particularly concerning women’s roles as mothers. When drug-using women are mothers, their competence is often disputed because ‘good mothers’ are not supposed to do such things. The present study aims to investigate the process of meaning making in the context of substance use and motherhood from women who are users or ex-users. The present thesis applies an intersectional approach in order to study the connections and confluence of several different identities- substance abuser, mother, as well as the way that multiple identities of women intersect and interconnect with each other, constructing the experiences of stigma and discrimination. Six women attending a methadone maintenance program provided in-depth interviews focusing on their history of use, their lives, and different aspects of their identities. The interview protocols were analyzed by applying Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis procedures. The resulting themes revel while the themes that emerged from this analysis reveal different aspects of the women’s identity and specifically how substance use, class, gender identity and motherhood interact by compounding the complexity of the experiences of drug addiction, which are unique for every woman. The results demonstrate the way that the stigmatized identity of women was formed, as also the ways that the women resist stigma, discrimination, and marginalization, adopting identities that bestow respect, principally the identity of “a good mother”. This research suggests that women’s addiction is a complex issue that is experienced differently by each woman in interaction with the various aspects of her identity. The intersectionality theory underlying this study reveals the way in which the diverse social positions of women shape the experiences of substance use, stigmatization, and marginalization of addicted mothers, making it clear that addiction is not a universal experience for all women. We hope that this new evidence for Greece will contribute to the theoretical discussion, on linking women’s addiction with the different social identities, as well as how mothers’ experiences are based on multiple privileges and inequalities and reflect marginalization and stigmatization. We believe that the results can have clinical implications in designing appropriate support interventions that follow women’s needs and their children’s.

Language

Greek

Subject

Coping strategies

Identity

Interpretative phenomenological analysis

Intersectionality

Motherhood

Stigma

Women addiction

Γυναικεία ουσιοεξάρτηση

Διαθεματικότητα