A Stress-Coping Model for Conceptualizing the Impact of Substance Abuse on Families

Substance abuse can have such a destructive impact on a family that it can both interrupt and transform the entire family's life. The impact of chronic illness on the family has been researched primarily from a stress-coping paradigm. Within the mental health literature, the impact of one family member's mental illness on other family members has begun to be investigated in a systema-tic and scientific manner. Within a stress-coping paradigm, the results of this empirical research have borne out the tremendous objective and subjective burdens placed on family caregivers (Biegel, Song, and Chakravarthy, 1994 Biegel , D. , Song , L. , & Chakravarthy , V. ( 1994 ). Predictors of caregiver burden among support group members of persons with chronic mental illness . In E. Kahana , D. Biegel , & M. Wykle (Eds.), Family caregiving across the lifespan . Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]; Lefley, 1996 Lefley , H. ( 1996 ). Family caregiving in mental illness . Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]). This article suggests that the impact of substance abuse on families may also be conceptualized within this paradigm and posits an evidence-based stress-coping model for conceptualizing this process.