A Cultural Perspective on Growth Following Adversity: Using Autobiography to Understand Addiction Recovery through Sport

Within this chapter a relativist and social constructionist approach to ‘culture’ is drawn on to advocate for studying autobiographies as cultural sites in relation to the role of sport in alcohol and drug addiction recovery. The central purpose of this chapter is to make the case for adding athlete autobiographies of substance addiction recovery as a form of post-traumatic growth to expand theoretical, methodological and topic understandings. This purpose is accomplished by drawing on research on narrative and autobiography in sport, and critical addiction studies research. Addiction meanings and recovery capital are first outlined to set the stage for the need for research focusing on addiction recovery through sport. Narrative inquiry tenets are then put forward as a theoretical possibility in which to ground the study of athlete autobiographies as cultural stories to expand understanding of the role of sport in addiction recovery as post-traumatic growth. Two central future research implications for studying autobiographies as cultural sites are provided: a focus on recreational athlete and elite athlete autobiographies and exploring the pedagogical possibilities of autobiographies. Suggestions are made in the spirit of sparking research continuing in the qualitative tradition of post-traumatic growth research in sport psychology.