This study aims at giving a three-generational perspective on the meanings that a family attaches to asthma and on how these meanings recursively informed their behaviours. The wider social context was taken into consideration, as well as how this impacted on the family's meanings and beliefs around asthma. The researcher contrasted the biomedical and the ecosystemic epistemologies and showed that the differences between them can be seen as differences in logical typing. Ecosystemic epistemology and social constructionism were used to guide the researcher in making distinctions and arriving at patterns and themes that fit the family under study. The themes and patterns, all centered around the idea that asthma is an expression of a need for emotional closeness in the face of an impending threat to the family's established belief in closeness and enmeshment. / Hierdie studie is gerig op 'n driegenerasie-perspektief aangaande die betekenisse wat 'n familie assosieer met asma en hoe hierdie betekenisse hulle gedrag telkens be"lnvloed. 'n Breer sosiale konteks is ook 'n aanmerking geneem, asook die impak hiervan op die familie se betekenisse en oortuigings omtrent asma. Die navorser het die biomediese en ekosistemiese epistomologiee vergelyk en het aangetoon dat die verskille tussen hulle gesien kan word as verskille in logiese tipering. Die navorser is gelei deur die ekosistemiese epistomologie en sosiale konstruktionisme om onderskeide te maak en om die gesin se patrone en temas te identifiseer. Hierdie temas en patrone wat deur die navorser geskep is gedurende die interaksie met die familie, het alles gesentreer om die idee dat asma die uitdrukking is van 'n behoefte aan emosionele nabyheid, wanneer die gesin se vasgestelde geloof in nabyheid bedreig word. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study aims at giving a three-generational perspective on the meanings that a family attaches to asthma and on how these meanings recursively informed their behaviours. The wider social context was taken into consideration, as well as how this impacted on the family's meanings and beliefs around asthma. The researcher contrasted the biomedical and the ecosystemic epistemologies and showed that the differences between them can be seen as differences in logical typing. Ecosystemic epistemology and social constructionism were used to guide the researcher in making distinctions and arriving at patterns and themes that fit the family under study. The themes and patterns, all centered around the idea that asthma is an expression of a need for emotional closeness in the face of an impending threat to the family's established belief in closeness and enmeshment. / Hierdie studie is gerig op 'n driegenerasie-perspektief aangaande die betekenisse wat 'n familie assosieer met asma en hoe hierdie betekenisse hulle gedrag telkens be"lnvloed. 'n Breer sosiale konteks is ook 'n aanmerking geneem, asook die impak hiervan op die familie se betekenisse en oortuigings omtrent asma. Die navorser het die biomediese en ekosistemiese epistomologiee vergelyk en het aangetoon dat die verskille tussen hulle gesien kan word as verskille in logiese tipering. Die navorser is gelei deur die ekosistemiese epistomologie en sosiale konstruktionisme om onderskeide te maak en om die gesin se patrone en temas te identifiseer. Hierdie temas en patrone wat deur die navorser geskep is gedurende die interaksie met die familie, het alles gesentreer om die idee dat asma die uitdrukking is van 'n behoefte aan emosionele nabyheid, wanneer die gesin se vasgestelde geloof in nabyheid bedreig word. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / African American adolescents have inadequate self-management behaviors, particularly during middle adolescence (14-16 years of age). Inaccurate beliefs, degree of asthma impairment (well controlled or not well controlled), and gender could influence asthma self-management (symptom management, medication management, and environmental control). The researcher used the illness representations concept from the common sense self-regulation model as the framework for this study. The descriptive correlational study explored (1) differences in illness representations (cognitive and emotional) and self-management behaviors by gender, asthma impairment, and gender by asthma impairment of African American adolescents with asthma; and (2) relationships between illness representations and asthma self-management behaviors, gender, and asthma impairment in 133 African American adolescents with asthma. Data were collected using the Asthma Control Test, the Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised, and the Asthma Self-Care Practice Instrument. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, MANOVA, Pearson correlations, and multiple regressions. Findings indicated that females whose asthma was not well controlled had more beliefs about the chronicity of their asthma than those who were well controlled. However, there were no differences in such beliefs among males whose asthma was not well controlled from those who were well controlled. Well controlled adolescents differed from not well controlled adolescents for cognitive representations of cyclic timeline, treatment control, psychological attributes, and consequences as well as for emotional representations. There were no significant differences in the means of the self-management behaviors by gender, by asthma impairment, or by gender by asthma impairment. A significant bivariate relationship was found between representations of identity, consequences, treatment control, and symptom management. In the multiple regression model, representations of treatment control and consequences contributed to variances in symptom management; however, no other representations, gender, or asthma impairment variables were statistically significant. The representations, gender, and asthma impairment variables did not contribute to variances in medication management or environmental control. Limited studies have been conducted with African American adolescents with asthma; therefore, the findings will contribute information to the literature on their illness representations and self-management behaviors. The findings also contribute to the literature information based on adolescents' genders and levels of asthma impairment.