Constructing Motherhood: An Analysis of the Group Conversations of Mothers in Drug Abuse Treatment with Their Children

This study examines the group conversations of seven mothers in recovery fromdrug abuse and dependence. The methodological approach, discourse analysis, is basedon the investigation of speech in action, how speech is produced in the social world.Feminist theory provides the foundational premise that mothers in treatment for drug andalcohol abuse have the right to represent and constitute their own identities in a societywhich has historically demonized and criminalized them merely for being mothers. Theanalysis of the mothers’ conversations revealed the following: a) the mothers’constructions of motherhood included an identity of a mother as one who is “there” forher children, b) the mothers experienced a connection or bond with their children in spiteof separations from them, and c) the mothers’ discourse revealed both resistance andacceptance of the public discourse about them.Ph.D., Couple and Family Therapy -- Drexel University, 200