ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9905-2251
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the lived experiences of parents caring for an adult child, aged 18 to 30 years, with a co-occurring mental health and substance use diagnosis, with attention to how caregiving intersects with trauma, resilience, and systemic challenges. To guide this exploration, the Resilience Trauma Negotiation (RTN) framework was introduced to examine how exposure, appraisal, coping responses, and systemic context intersect to shape the complex realities of caregiving. Using Moustakas’s seven-step transcendental phenomenological approach, semi-directed interview questions were facilitated with 14 caregivers. Data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to identify emerging themes that reflected how parents made sense of caregiving while also showcasing common patterns of experiences across participants. Results revealed nine subthemes distributed across the four domains of the RTN framework. In the exposure domain, parents reported persistent crises and hypervigilance. Within the appraisal domain, parents described role strain, constrained influence, and grief tied to ambiguous loss. Coping responses included emotional numbing, boundary setting, and advocacy through faith, while the systemic context revealed fragmented care, exclusion from treatment, and stigma that reinforced isolation and powerlessness. While this study contributes to the literature on family-centered and resilience-focused care, future research should examine how systemic supports, policy changes, and community-based resources shape caregiver well-being and sustain coping strategies across the long-term demands of caregiving for adult children with co-occurring disorders.
