family influences

Question 1

what is family influence as a risk factor for addiction?

Answer 1

• Given that your family are key determinants of your behaviour, perceived parental approval is one of the most crucial factors in addiction.

E.G - if you parents approve of your addiction, you will almost certainly continue.

• Livingston (2010) found that when high-school students were allowed to drink at home by parents, the kids often become addicted in their first year at college.

Note - it is the subjective PERCEPTION of approval. This is not actual approval from the parents.
Adolescents were found to believe that if their behaviour is not monitored, this constitutes a parental approval in drug taking behaviours.
Exposure is also crucial.
If the addiction is an everyday feature of the family, it will likely be continued by the offspring.

• Another theory that can be successfully applied here is the social learning theory.
• Imitation - copying the role models behaviour through pure imitation.
• Modelling - Models teach us vicariously how to engage in the addictive behaviour (e.g. what to drink, how much, etc)
• Vicarious Reinforcement - We may see them in a positive state (e.g. happy drunk) but the downsides (e.g. hangovers) may be hiding from us as children.

Question 2

what are some positive evaluations for family influences as a risk factor for addiction?

Answer 2

• One strength of family influences as a risk factor of addiction is that there is research support. For example, Goddard (1990) completed longitudinal research to examine factors that may predict youngsters’ smoking behaviour. The main finding was that if parents smoke, the kids are far more likely to themselves. In addition, Murray (194) found that if parents are perceived as very anti-smoking then the kids were 7 times less likely to smoke. This highlights that families can influence whether or not children are likely to develop addictions
• One practical application of family influences as an explanation of addiction is that there are practical applications. For example, by recognising the impact that family habits and addictions can have on individuals , interventions or support can be put into place to minimise these effects e.g. free smoking quitting aids for parents. Strict rules and guidelines have also been put in place for things such as foster caring and adoption to ensure that children are brought up around positive influences. This means that family influences have highlighted which individuals may be at risk of developing addictions and how we can prevent this from occurring.

Question 3

what are the negative evaluations for family influences as a risk factor for addiction?

Answer 3

• One weakness of family influences as an explanation for addiction is that there is research that refute sit. For example, Hinde (1985) suggests Peer networks become our primary source of socialisation at around 12-14 replacing our parents as sources of reinforcement. This means for some people, friends will be more influential than parents and may become role models in their place and so have a greater influence on their later behaviour. This therefore suggests that family is less important when developing addictions as this tends to occur later in life, when peer networks are more dominant in an individual’s life.
• One weakness of family influences as an explanation for addiction is that there is a theoretical flaw with the theory. For example most of the research suggests that children are more likely to develop an addiction if their parents or other close family members share that addiction/addictive substance. However, this can also be explained by genetics, so it weakens the idea that it is the family environment that causes the addiction. This weakens the theory as an environmental explanation as genetics can better explain this.