Abstract

The purpose of the study was to deeply understand the experiences of mother of addicted gambler, and thus we are able to definitize how to provide practical and helpful intervention for them. The research participants consisted of the 9 mothers of unmarried men who has gambling addiction. The research data created by the in-depth interview between January and September, 2012. The analysis of the data was made Colaizzi's phenomenological analytic method. Five categories that emerged from themes cluster were; 1) blind faith in son with hiding her head in the sand, 2) becoming a target of criticism and suffering hardship together like one in body and soul, 3) feel guilty that everything is my fault, 4) getting tired of living gradually with continuous pain and hopelessness, 5) withstanding on the very last her strength with responsibility to take care of her son. Meaning of experience of them is that "Rolling together in mud flat of gambling, with embracing her son who is connected by umbilical cord not seen". (Korean J Str Res 2012;20:331∼345)

• Keywords: Gambling, Addictive gambler, Mother, Phenomenological qualitative research;