The impact of family systems and social networks on substance use initiation and recovery among women with substance use disorders.

Objective: While social networks influence individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs), the mechanisms for such influence are under-explored among women who use drugs. This study triangulates the perspectives of criminal justice professionals, SUD treatment professionals, and women with past and current experiences with substance use to explore these dynamics.

Method: We conducted semistructured interviews ( = 42) in 2022 with women with current or past opioid use disorder ( = 20), SUD treatment professionals ( = 12), and criminal justice professionals ( = 10) who work with women with opioid use disorder.

Insights into stigma management communication theory: Considering stigmatization as interpersonal influence.

The theory of stigma management communication has helped identify and categorize the communication tactics people use to manage stigmatization, yet communication research has provided little insight into predictors of these tactics. To address this gap, we considered stigmatization through the lens of interpersonal influence: as an act in which stigmatizers attempt to persuade their targets to accept categorization and de-individualization into a social group and, further, to accept its marginalized status in the society at large. We used the obstacle hypothesis, a theory of resistance to interpersonal influence, to derive predictors of stigma management strategies.