| Author: | Cheung, Ka-hang |
| Title: | A phenomenological study of the experiences of Chinese mothers with children and adolescents suffering from atopic eczema (AE) |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations. Atopic dermatitis -- China -- Hong Kong. Mother and child -- China -- Hong Kong -- Health and hygiene. |
| Department: | School of Nursing |
| Pages: | iii, 134, xxii leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The prevalence rate of atopic eczema (AE) has increased to 10-30% of the world population in the last decade. The profoundly negative effects among the children suffering AE all over the world have been well documented. The chronic nature of AE together with its high world prevalence rate confirms it as an extremely important childhood dermatological disease. However, this has been under-recognized by health workers and the informational and social support to the parents with children and adolescents suffering from AE are very limited. In the past, there were many research studies exploring the treatment advances in AE, its impacts to the affected children and their families. Usually mothers are the primary care givers but only limited studies were done to describe the mothers' impacts with the children suffering from AE. In the west and majority of those studies were done by using the quantitative approach and give us the overall picture but the qualitative research can give the better understandings of how the mothers were affected. In addition, there is no publication found to explore the lived experiences of Chinese mothers with children and adolescents suffering from AE. In this study, the hermeneutical interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted to explore the lived experiences of the Chinese mothers with children and adolescents suffering from AE in Hong Kong. Nine mothers were recruited and interviewed using an unstructured interviewing guide with some open ended questions. The interviews were tape recorded, transcribed, analyzed and categorized to make sense that data. This study adopted Crist and Tanner's (2003) circular process of hermeneutic interpretative phenomenology to guide the data analysis. Lincoln and Cuba's trustworthiness criteria were employed to assess the rigor of the study. The findings showed that the Chinese mothers experience is dominated by persistently providing "extra mothering". Two main concepts and five themes are emerged from the data. Two main concepts emerged: the mothers' coping patterns and the psychological emotions. Mothers' coping patterns were persistently finding ways to relive their children's sufferings with aimed to cure the disease and the psychological emotions were related to the frustration resulting from living with blames and worries. The five themes were 1) dealing with extra mothering, 2) learned how to cope with the enduring demands, 3) becoming constantly vigilance, 4) living with blame and worry, 5) becoming frustrated and shamed. The findings of this study provided nurses with empathic insights into the mothers' feelings and the enduring demands of caring for their children and adolescents suffering from AE and generate information about their coping strategies. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b22659043.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.21 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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