A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of aging with a childhood onset disability.
In this qualitative study, we combined multiple interviews, field notes, life history review charts, and demographic questions to explore the life course experiences of 25 women, ages 55 to 65 years, who developed impairments due to paralytic polio during childhood. Based on a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology using thematic analysis, multiple themes emerged that traced their lives from childhood to later adulthood. The women described how they pushed their bodies and dismissed their physical decline as long as possible. The women's early experiences combined with the culturally defined role expectations for women to influence their perceptions of how to react to changing physical abilities with age.
Harrison
Tracie C
TC
School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA. tharrison@mail.nur.utexas.edu
Stuifbergen
Alexa
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health