My assistant and I : Disabled children's and adolescents' roles and relationships to their assistants

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe how children and adolescents with restricted mobility perceive their assistant with a focus on their roles and relationships with one another. The group investigated consisted of 13 children and adolescents with restricted mobility from north...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Skär, Lisa, Tamm, Maare
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Omvårdnad 2001
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-14333
Description
Summary:The purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe how children and adolescents with restricted mobility perceive their assistant with a focus on their roles and relationships with one another. The group investigated consisted of 13 children and adolescents with restricted mobility from northern Sweden, aged from 8 to 19 years. Data were collected through conversational interviews. The analysis resulted in five categories: 1, the replaceable assistant; 2, the assistant as mother/father; 3, the professional assistant; 4, the assistant as a friend; and finally 5, my ideal assistant. In each category the child/adolescent was seen in relation to the assistant, i.e. the main story 'My assistant and I' from different perspectives. The findings showed that relation towards/from the assistant were both mutual and non-mutual, and that there were relations that by the children/adolescents were perceived as ambivalent and unequal. The findings are discussed on the basis of the significance of these roles and relations in the children and adolescents' development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved) Validerad; 2001; 20061107 (andbra)