title: Adapting the concept of explanatory models of illness to the study of youth violence.
abstract: This study explores the feasibility of adapting Kleinman's concept of explanatory models of illness to the study of youth violence and is conducted within the hermeneutic tradition. Data were collected by interviewing 11 violent adolescents, their parents, and their caregivers. Four types of explanatory models representing the adolescent girls', the adolescent boys', the caregivers', and the parents' understanding of youth violence are found; they correspond sufficiently to Kleinman's concept and establish the feasibility of adapting it to the study of youth violence. The developmental nature of the parents' and adolescents' models makes it feasible to study them by means of hermeneutic methodology. There are some clinically significant discrepancies between the caregivers' and the clients' explanatory models; identifying such discrepancies is an essential step in the process of breaking down barriers to therapeutic communications. Violent adolescents should be encouraged to define their own explanatory models of violence through dialogue with their caregivers.
authors.affiliation: University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. pb@hi.is
authors.forename: Páll
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biering
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*