Young People's Experience of Illegal Drug Use in the Family

Abstract

This paper is about ten to twelve year olds' experience of illegal drug use in their family. We look at children's knowledge of their relatives illegal drug use, how children became aware of illegal drug use in their family and their reactions to illegal drug use on the part of relatives. We show that young people had a variety of concerns about family drug use: they were worried about the impact of the drug use on their relative; the impact on their wider family; and the reactions of other people in the event that their relative's drug use became known outside of their family. We consider a range of ways in which children exposed to family drug use may be better supported including the possible benefit of peer support initiatives and greater support from class teachers and other staff. We recognize, however, that there are likely to be substantial barriers to children disclosing the details of their relative's drug use to peers and teachers even where this is causing them considerable concern.