A Life Course Perspective on Exiting Addiction: The Relevance of Recovery Capital in TreatmentWilliam Cloud & Robert Granfield
pg 185-202 in NAD Publications no. 44 Addiction and life course Eds. Pia Rosenqvist, Jan Blomqvist, Anja Koski-Jännes & Leif Öjesjö, 2004
Introduction
Over the past several years, research on the life course has examined the pathways associated with social deviance, status mobility, and educational attainment. The life course perspective seeks to uncover the dynamics of life span trajectories as well as the transitions that occur within any given trajectory.An important dimension of this perspective has been the recognition that continuity and change are mediated by a “dynamic process whereby the interlocking nature of trajectories and transitions generates turning points in the life course” (Laub & Sampson 1993). For some, turning points can be abrupt, radical turnarounds that separate the past from the future (Elder1985). For others, and perhaps most, turning points are part of a process occurring over time.(Clausen 1990; McAdam 1989).The life course perspective suggests that trajectories and transitions are bounded by broader social environments and social relationships. For instance, a good deal of research has found that trajectories into and out of criminal behavior are affected by the degree of social capital available to an individual. As Laub and Sampson (1993) assert, adults will be inhibited from committing crime to the extent that, over time, they accumulate social capital in their work and family lives, regardless of delinquent background. These researchers recognize that the accumulation of social capital can lead to normative systems as well as assorted resources that serve as pathways to change. This paper adopts a life course perspective, and particularly the focus on social capital, to examine the process of natural recovery and explores the implications that natural recovery has for treatment providers.
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Contributor: Don Philips
