Developing a Model of Codependency Based on Addictive Behaviors Among Women in Families Affected by Addiction

Fatemeh Masoudinia; Hossein Davoudi; Fariba Arjmandi

Authors

Fatemeh Masoudinia Department of Counseling, Khom.C., Islamic Azad University, Khomein, Iran. Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5657-7472
Hossein Davoudi Department of Counseling, Khom.C., Islamic Azad University, Khomein, Iran. Corresponding Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4701-4958
Fariba Arjmandi Department of Medicine, Na.C., Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran | Clinical Research Development Center, Na.C., Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran. Author https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4865-2117

Keywords:

addictive behaviors, Intervention model, Women , addiction

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to develop and explain a comprehensive model of codependency based on addictive behaviors among women in families affected by addiction and to identify its principal antecedents, contextual and intervening factors, coping strategies, and psychological and interpersonal consequences.

Methods and Materials: This applied qualitative study employed qualitative content analysis. Participants were experts in psychology, counseling, psychiatry, addiction, and related clinical fields who were selected through purposive sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 30–40 minutes. The interview transcripts were repeatedly reviewed and analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding using constant comparison. Credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability criteria were used to establish the trustworthiness of the qualitative findings.

Findings: Qualitative analysis identified codependency based on addictive behaviors as a multidimensional, interactive, and cyclical phenomenon. Causal conditions included low self-esteem, negative self-concept, emotional dependency, insecure attachment, dysfunctional beliefs regarding responsibility and self-sacrifice, and adverse developmental experiences. The central phenomenon was characterized by excessive emotional dependency, pathological focus on the person exhibiting addictive behaviors, controlling behaviors, excessive rescuing, self-neglect, and tolerance of emotional harm. Contextual conditions comprised cultural, familial, and economic factors, whereas psychological, therapeutic, and social-support factors functioned as intervening conditions. Coping responses ranged from maladaptive control, monitoring, emotional suppression, and conflict avoidance to adaptive boundary setting, self-care, treatment seeking, and identity reconstruction. Major consequences included depression, chronic anxiety, psychological exhaustion, reduced self-esteem and differentiation of self, disturbed emotional intimacy, marital conflict, impaired trust, and reproduction of the codependency cycle.

Conclusion: Codependency among women in families affected by addiction is best understood as a complex process produced by interactions among individual vulnerabilities, family dynamics, sociocultural pressures, and available psychological and social resources.

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