Young women’s recovery from problematic alcohol use : a critical realist reconceptualization

Interventions for problematic alcohol use typically focus on clients as individuals even when these clients continue interacting with their social networks. This paper reports a study about young women's help seeking for problematic alcohol use, examining Alcohol and other Drug outreach service staff perceptions of social network interactions among young women receiving support. We argue that critical realism enables analysis into underlying mechanisms influencing young women's recovery. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts within his theory of capital, and Margaret Archer's concept of conscious reflexivity, assisted in analysing social interactions which helped or hindered recovery. A causal mechanism of legitimacy was associated with social networks that hindered young women's recovery. A sociological approach to problematic alcohol use that combines support for individuals along with their social networks is necessary. More effective promotion of alcohol harms could aid conscious reflexivity, that may help change the habitus of excessive alcohol use.