Project Details

Recovery is defined as the transition from illness to health, as well as the process of change through which the symptoms of illness decrease or diminish in conjunction with personal growth and social involvement. Partners of individuals with gambling disorder (GD) may be a resource for recovery, but they may also suffer from the consequences of their partner’s disorder themselves and thus need support. Whereas most studies have dealt with the ways individuals with GD initiate recovery and attempt to sustain it, this research project will shed light on the partners of such individuals, the resources they use, and the challenges they encounter in living with their GD partners, in Israel and Germany. In our study, a descriptive qualitative methodology will be applied to identify and conceptualize the internal and external positive resources that partners use (in being social capital themselves) to help significant others with GD to recover; the barriers that hinder them from doing so; the internal and external positive elements that these partners need for themselves to improve their own lives; and the barriers they encounter on the way to this improvement.