Retrospective recall of heroin initiation and the impact on peer networks

BEST, David, MANNING, V. and STRANG, J. (2007). Retrospective recall of heroin initiation and the impact on peer networks. Addiction Research and Theory, 15 (4), 397-410.

Full text not available from this repository.
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1080/16066350701340651

Abstract

Initiation to heroin use is an event that is evidently memorable for the individual-even many years later. The current exploratory study assesses heroin initiation among a cohort of long-term substance users to assess the effects of heroin use on peer networks. Participants were able to recollect the occasion of their initiation in considerable detail and were able to recall and describe the peer networks in which they were involved at the time. Initiation into heroin use had had a profound effect on these networks, fragmenting groups between those who initiated and continued to use and those who did not. However, even among the continued users, there was a more gradual rupture, with loosening of social bonds outside family and the closest friendship dyads. Heroin initiation is a critical event that has received little research attention, yet its impact on social functioning is reported here as dramatic and influential in shaping the users' self-perceptions and identity.

Item Type: Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Law Research Group
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1080/16066350701340651
Page Range: 397-410
Depositing User: Hilary Ridgway
Date Deposited: 29 Jan 2015 11:29
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 09:45
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9220

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics