Emerging Adults and Recovery Capital: Barriers and Facilitators to Recovery

• Main Author: Elswick, Alex
• Format: Others
• Published: UKnowledge 2017
• Subjects: Emerging adults; recovery; substance use; addiction; phenomenology; Substance Abuse and Addiction
• Online Access: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/hes_etds/51; http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=hes_etds

Substance use disorders are chronic brain disorders and must therefore be treated on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, the concept of recovery capital has been developed to account for the internal and external resources that an individual can mobilize in order to recover from a substance use disorder. However, the concept has scarcely been applied to emerging adults. Although they are at twice the risk of developing a substance use disorder relative to their adult or adolescent counterparts, emerging adults in addiction and recovery are understudied. This phenomenological study aims to explore and describe the experience of emerging adults in recovery and to identify the barriers and facilitators to their recovery. The informants (n=8) were 18-25 year olds in recovery from substance use disorders. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and subsequently analyzed for emerging themes. The results from this study suggest that the developmental tasks facing emerging adults are exacerbated in addiction and recovery.