Out of the frying pan into the fire : child abuse as a possible contributory factor leading to substance abuse problems later in life

Abstract

The concerned study aimed at exploring the issues of substance abuse and child abuse. Essentially, it aspired to find out whether child sexual and/or physical abuse might contribute in any way to substance abuse difficulties later in life. This research intended to throw light on the importance of considering child abuse issues when dealing with substance abusers. In order to reach this objective, a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative approaches was adopted. In fact a number of questionnaires tackling issues of substance abuse and child sexual and physical abuse were distributed among various substance abuse service providers around Malta. In addition subsequent to the questionnaires, various interviews with both participants and professionals were conducted. After that the findings have been analyzed, it resulted that the majority of the participants taking part in this study have experienced some form of child sexual and/or physical abuse as children. Such findings suggest that there seems to be an indirect link between child sexual and/or physical abuse and substance abuse in later life. Therefore, it is imperative that within substance abuse treatment, histories of child victimization are given the needed credit, so as the roots of the substance problem could be appropriately tackled.