PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Substance abuse by teenagers is a disease that burdens the whole family. This study aimed at exploring how teenage substance abuse affected the family of the user, parents’ efforts to curb the use; their coping strategies in relation to their children’s substance abuse problem. The current study was carried out with nine parents whose teenage children abused substances and were receiving treatment for such a problem in an outpatient treatment centre in Soweto. These children were conveniently selected using non-probability sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The whole family becomes disarrayed by the discovery of substance abuse by one of their own. The spousal relationship is also adversely affected. In an attempt to contain the problem, most parents usually respond by attempting to solve the problem with their own resources such as giving parental guidance and hoping that the child would stop using drugs. Most parents do not receive the support that they require. The whole family system is negatively affected, therefore substance abuse and dependency intervention efforts should include the whole family and not just the addicted person.