| Summary: | Our study aims to investigate whether resilient children share common factors that could explain them not following the expected course of development for said group. The study also sets out to explore which strategies resilient children implement in order to cope with their situation. The study is based on the following questions: How do resilient children describe their experiences from growing up with parents with substance abuse problems? What risk and protective factors do they mention in their biographies? We use the system theory and Goffman's dramaturgic perspective as analytical tools. The system theory could help us see the family as a system, while Goffman's theory might help us understand how resilient children find different strategies, and why they implement these strategies, to hide their family problems. The results show that the most important factors with a positive effect on resilient children were: to have somebody else important in their lives, to have goals in life, to have a safe haven, to think independently and to develop a high level of independence early in life.
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