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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on September 26, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2006 36(1):57-73; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch247
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Coping Styles in Persons Recovering from Substance Abuse

Kathleen Valtonen, Michele Sogren and Jacqueline Cameron-Padmore

Kathleen Valtonen is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of the West Indies. Her research interests include preventive social work, social welfare models in the Caribbean and social work with immigrants and refugees.

Michele Sogren is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of the West Indies. Her areas of research have focused on the family, children of parents who have migrated from the Caribbean.

Jacqueline Cameron-Padmore is Lecturer/Practicum Coordinator in Social Work at the University of the West Indies. Her recent research has focused on social work approaches and input into the problem of HIV/AIDS.

Correspondence to Kathleen Valtonen, Social Work Unit, Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. E-mail: kvaltonen{at}fss.uwi.tt

This qualitative study was conducted among persons recovering from substance abuse. The data were collected in three rehabilitation facilities in Trinidad in 2002–03. The aim was to examine the types of coping strategies which subjects used and learned in response to stressful and problematic life situations, starting with experiences related to childhood and socialization. The coping styles reported were overwhelming in the category of emotion-focused coping, developed in the main to regulate stress in uncontrollable situations in childhood and to cope with the loss of significant others. Only a minority used, or were able to use, problem-focused or social support coping strategies to meet stressful events. It is suggested that the observed bias in the development of the individuals’ coping ‘armamentarium’ might have had, in the long run, negative implications for individuals’ capacity to meet ongoing challenges of life. This has critical implications for how we fashion preventive approaches to the problem of substance abuse.

Keywords: coping styles, substance abuse, stress, childhood, adolescence


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