”Jag minns varenda sekund. Jag kommer aldrig glömma. Och mamma kommer inte ihåg någonting” : En kvalitativ litteraturstudie om barns upplevelser av att växa upp med en missbrukande förälder

Abstract

Our aim with this study was to investigate whether gender plays a role in children'sexperiences of growing up in abusive environments, as well as how this affects themin adulthood. It is a qualitative study conducted using a thematic text method. Weused Yvonne Hirdman's gender theoretical concepts for our analysis. Our empiricalwork consists of five autobiographies. Where we sorted them into different themesto see which themes were most central in the books. The criteria we had whensearching for autobiographies was that the authors should have lived under alcoholabuse conditions regarding one or two of their parents. According to the themes wefound, we divided the results into two parts. The first part presents how the authorsexperienced their childhood and the second one how the authors described how itaffected them in adulthood. Each part has three subcategories that present differentaspects of the result. The analysis of our results can be found after the subcategoriesin each theme. The research is limited to children who lives in an environment ofalcoholics abuse. We wanted to gain an in-depth knowledge of how the childs´sgender will affect their lives and actions in adulthood. By highlighting thisperspective on the subject, our intention is to contribute to more in-depth knowledgeof the subject. From the results it can be seen that the invisible rules and frameworksof the gender contract play a role in how children deal with their upbringing inalcohol abuse, as well as how this characterizes the impact of the situation inadulthood.