Parenting Experiences Among Women Who Grew Up With Parental Alcohol Use Disorder

ABSTRACT

Women raised in families affected by alcohol use disorder (AUD) may experience adverse childhood experiences, including emotional neglect and parent–child role reversals, which may leave lasting traces in their own parenting. Yet little is known about how female adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs) experience and understand parenting in this context. This qualitative study explored how female ACoAs' childhood experiences in AUD‐affected families are reflected in their current parenting practices and parent–child relationships. Sixteen mothers (aged 27–55) across Türkiye who self‐identified as ACoAs participated in semi‐structured interviews, analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: (1) growing up with a parent with AUD: family‐of‐origin relationships, (2) parent–child relationships shaped by alcohol: the dark mirror and (3) constructing a new parenthood: differentiating from the past. Findings suggest that ACoAs' parenting reflects both continuities with family‐of‐origin patterns and deliberate efforts to parent differently from their own upbringing. These results underscore the need for trauma‐informed, culturally sensitive support services that recognize both the intergenerational continuity of adverse experiences and ACoAs' efforts to construct alternative parenting practices.