title: Mothering through addiction: a survival strategy among Puerto Rican addicts.
abstract: In this article, the importance of motherhood in the lives of Puerto Rican addicts is examined. Using a life history method, the authors interviewed 20 Latina females in various stages of recovery from addiction to crack-cocaine or heroin. Their lives as mothers took place in a context of poverty, marginalization, and abuse. Motherhood provided an identity and a line of work that grounded them amidst this dislocation. As their life options became more restricted over time, motherhood provided a lifeline through addiction and into recovery. While using drugs, they relied on a number of strategies to maintain mothering. In recovery, children became the markers of success in a treatment program. These findings challenge public images of female addicts as parents.
authors.affiliation: University of Hartford, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hardesty
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Black
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016578:Crack Cocaine; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011203:Poverty; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D013315:Stress, Psychological
chemical_list: D016578:Crack Cocaine