Parents’ coping with their child’s asthma

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to understand and explore parents’ experiences of coping with their child's asthma, contextually important mechanisms for coping and parents’ ascribed meaning to their coping strategies. Twenty-six parents (11 fathers) were interviewed individually (6 subjects) or as a couple. The taped interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in line with the grounded theory tradition. Two core categories, describing contextual focus of parental coping with asthma, were identified in the data. These core concepts, “cognitive control” and “locus of confidence in caring”, formed a typology of parental coping with asthma. Combinations of variations in these core concepts were related to six qualitatively different parental coping strategies: “problem-solving”, “avoiding-assuring”, “reducing”, “relying on self, “complying” and “enduring”. The core concept “chaos in caring” described the experienced stress in caring for the child's asthma. Six additional categories were related to this core concept: parents’ experience of “lack of control”, “incompetence in caring”, “disease-focusing”, “existential fear”, “closeness” and “uncertainty due to a non-understanding environment”. The result gives a deeper understanding of the experienced meaning and context related to parents’ coping efforts and might be of importance in developing and evaluating family therapy/ rehabilitation programs