Different parents- The self-identity of the children of parents with disabilities

• Main Authors: Guei-Ying Song, 宋貴英
• Other Authors: 林萬億
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/45544178871828388446

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 社會工作學研究所 === 101 === The past studies on the disabled usually focus on the adaptation of the disabled individuals and their family. However, the predicaments, needs and process of self-identity of the children of parents with disabilities are often neglected. This study seeks to explore how children of parents with disabilities view the disabilities of their parents, what have their past life experiences been, how the disabilities of the parents influence the children’s definition and treatment of their self, how the children of parents with disabilities understand themselves from the eyes of others and define and understand their social position, and how this in turn influences the children’s self-identity. This study is an exploratory study using an in-depth interview approach in qualitative research methodology and selects six interviewees (including three males and three females) at the age of 18 to 30 years by purposive sampling. The time for which one of the parents of the interviewees is disabled all exceeds 25 years, wherein three interviewees’ parent is physically disability, two’s mentally disability, and one’s both parents are speaking and hearing disabilities. The study explores how the children of parents with disabilities construct their identity in the special social context from the perspective of narrative psychology. Such narrative enriches the presentation of personal life stories in a retrospective view, which in one way helps the children of parents with disabilities understand the experiences in their identity process and meanings thereof and in another helps the narrator confirm the meaning of life. The study finds that the life experiences of the children of parents with disabilities have the following in common: (1) children assuming more responsibility and taking more care of the family; (2) inescapable judgment of other people; (3) the experience of feeling “abnormal;” (4) different concerns in making boyfriend and girlfriend and in marriage; and (5) parents’ high expectations, self-requirements and compensatory rivalry effect. In the course of developing self-identity, the children of parents with disabilities mainly experience three stages: feeling, tolerating or adapting to peculiar looks on others’ faces; accepting the particularity; and developing the self, wherein some interviewees feel inferiority and stigma, and the transformation of each stage results from different influencing factors. As for coping strategies, some interviewees choose a passive attitude and determinism, saying that life is just like this, while some interviewees treat the situation of parents being physically and mentally disabilities in a normal way, feeling no significant differences. Based on the conclusions, the study provides reflection and suggestions for social welfare policies, social work practice and social work research.