Explanatory Models of Self-Understanding in Adolescents Born With Spina Bifida

Bibliographic Data

ID5454828
AuthorsChristine Kinavey (Department of Family Health Care Nursing and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, Regional Spina Bifida Program, Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, Department of Genetics, Oakland, California, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume16
Issue8
Pages1091-1107
Publication date2006-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732306292092
PMID16954527
OpenAlexW2153739472
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited24

The author used phenomenological (interpretive) ethnography to uncover how living with physical disability shapes self-understanding (identity) in adolescents born with spina bifida. She conducted multiple in-depth interviews with 11 late-stage adolescents (ages 18 to 24 years). Analysis of their narrative accounts illustrated differences with respect to how study participants understand and experience physical disability and its attached meanings in relation to self-understanding. Study participants took up (claimed) disability in three primary ways: identity as overcoming disability, identity as objectifying disability, and identity as integrating disability. These informal explanatory models of self-understanding were fluid, not static, mirroring identity development in youth. Findings suggest that individuals born with physical disability confer explanatory meaning to their disability that occurs within a background of deeply held, taken-for-granted assumptions, meanings, and practices from local and larger sociopolitical contexts. These informal explanatory models offer insight into positive disability identity

Developmental psychology · Disability studies · Explanatory model · Interpretative phenomenological analysis · Mirroring · Narrative · Physical disability · Psychotherapist · Qualitative research · Self-concept · Social model of disability · Sociology · Spina bifida · Family and Disability Support Research · Gender Studies · Medicine · Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Spinal Dysraphism and Malformations

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