Drug use with parents as a relational strategy for incarcerated female adolescents

Problems associated with poor quality parentchild relationships are compounded for incarcerated girls. Using attachment theory as a framework, the present qualitative study examined how 18 incarcerated adolescent girls made meaning with regard to their parents' drug use. We found that 8 of the 18 girls used drugs with their parents as a relational strategy to be close with them, particularly with their fathers, or as a means to share time together. The unique finding that girls used drugs together with their parents supports the need for relational parenting interventions that, whenever possible, support, encourage, and provide treatment and family strengthening services to parents who use drugs and their children.