Struggling to Enable Physical Activity for Children with Disabilities: A Narrative Model of Parental Roles

Abstract

This article presents a narrative model based on in-depth interviews with parents of children 6–12 years old with a variety of disabilities. It is a grounded theory study aiming to explore the parents’ experiences of enabling health-promoting physical activity (PA) for their children. The core of the generated theory struggling between roles to facilitate PA describes how the parents, in different contexts and over time, are forced to take on roles as experts, coaches, minesweepers, and activists to facilitate adapted PA for their children. How tiresome this struggle became depended on contextual factors, the extent of effort put into the separate roles, and the interaction between them. The study revealed a complex picture unique for each family but at the same time suitable despite the character of the child’s disability. This study adds knowledge to better support parents enabling PA on equal terms for all children.

Keywords

• child
• disability
• parenting
• physical activity
• health promotion
• grounded theory