M.A. / As medical technology and procedures continue to improve, traumatically brain injured persons who previously would not have lived through their injuries are managing to survive. The traumatically brain-injured person must learn to cope with the profound physical, cognitive, emotional, and personality changes that are produced from brain trauma. Within the family system, the members reciprocally influence one another. Major events that occur within the family system have an immense effect on the family relationships, dynamics, roles, and expectations. A traumatic brain injury, with its sudden onset and the inherent uncertainty regarding recovery and rehabilitation, can have a devastating effect on the family as a whole, and upon its individual members. Research on the familial effects of a member’s traumatic brain injury portrays a bleak image of the family in the aftermath of TBI, and for years afterwards. Grief, anger, guilt, blame, loneliness, depression, and isolation are often reported in the literature. The literature focuses mainly on the primary caregiver, usually the spouse of the TBI person, or the parent of a TBI child. Limited research has been conducted regarding the psychological effects on the offspring of parents who sustain traumatic brain injuries. Surely, children and adolescents will feel the effects of a parent’s brain injury differently than a spouse would. However the actual experience as perceived by the offspring has been neglected in research thus far. Adolescents were the focus of the current study. Being in a time of transition between childhood and adulthood, it was thought that they would experience the effects of a parental brain injury differently than younger children or adults within the family would. The existential-phenomenological approach employed as the research methodology allowed for a rich, in depth understanding of the adolescents as beings-in-the-world interpreting their own experiences of having a traumatically brain-injured parent. Six adolescent offspring of traumatically brain-injured parents were sourced from Headway Gauteng, and interviewed for the study. The four interviews that were used for the intense phenomenological analysis were transcribed verbatim. Themes were derived from the experience of each participant, and then integrated and related to the relevant available literature and within the wider context of existential phenomenology, in order to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the adolescent experience of a parent’s traumatic brain injury. The phenomenon of parental traumatic brain injury in the lifeworlds of the adolescents was characterized by numerous themes. Adolescents experienced (to varying degrees) denial, anger, grief, guilt, and anxiety. There was a tendency towards overprotectiveness of the injured parent, resulting in the parentification of the adolescents. Loneliness and a sense that nobody could understand their feelings were particularly strong themes, perhaps exacerbated by the importance of conformity during the adolescent period. Furthermore, the adolescents experienced drastic changes in their lives following their parents’ traumatic brain injuries. Not only were family roles and dynamics affected, but also the adolescents reported extensive changes in themselves. There were sudden increases in their responsibilities alongside a sense that they were forced to mature sooner than their peers. The adolescents coped using both approach and avoidance styles of coping. Religion was a theme in the lives of all four adolescents. Despite the professed negative impact of the experience of having a traumatically brain-injured parent, the adolescents in the current study managed to find some degree of positive meaning in having to cope with such a traumatic event and its consequences. Professionals working with brain-injured clients and their families will find value in the present study. The in-depth description of the experience of adolescents with brain-injured parents will be helpful in planning support programmes and interventions following familial brain injuries. The findings of this study have also been the basis for recommendations for future empirical investigations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:14613 |
| Date | 06 November 2008 |
| Creators | Harris, Donna J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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