One Degree at a Time: Amplifying the Voices of Students in Recovery through Narrative Inquiry

• In Event: Home and Kinship for College Students

Abstract

College students in substance use recovery are an “underserved and at-risk student population,” and despite the amount of attention that is given to drug and alcohol prevention programs and events on college campuses, there are minimal resources for students already in recovery (Perron, Grahovac & Porter, 2011). Much of the research about these students comes from a minority of 167 institutionally-funded collegiate recovery programs at campuses nationwide (Laudet, et al., 2015; Workman, 2020; ARHE, 2024). This fact presented a path for me to use narrative analysis, a type of narrative inquiry (Polkinghorne, 1995), to research students in recovery who lack on-campus resources. I believe my research adds to an area of addiction studies that is largely untapped and may serve as a guide for readers to help work with these students when there are no other resources on campus to supplement guidance.

Author

• Sherri Ahern, Florida International University