title: The Coconstruction of Couples' Roles in Parenting Children With a Chronic Health Condition.
abstract: In this study we explored the ways that mothers and fathers of children who have a chronic health condition coconstructed their parenting roles. We wanted to move beyond the standard focus on individual parenting behaviors and use a grounded theory approach to better capture the dyadic and interpersonal gestalt of how parents worked out their roles. We explored multiple factors that influenced their decision making and the unique models that each couple developed. We held conjoint qualitative interviews with 20 couples from the Toronto area, as well as follow-up interviews with individual partners in five of these couples. Our findings introduce several concepts (such as role negotiation, complementarity and symmetry of roles, and "good enough" role performance) that form an explanatory model. A key finding is the diversity of ways in which couples adapted to the parenting challenges they faced. Implications in conceptual, clinical, and research areas are presented.
authors: University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ted.mcneill@utoronto.ca.
authors: Ted
authors: T
authors: McNeill
authors: University of Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Nicholas
authors: University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Beaton
authors: Holland Bloorview Kid's Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Gert
authors: G
authors: Montgomery
authors: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors: Radha
authors: R
authors: MacCulloch
authors: Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors: Robin
authors: R
authors: Gearing
authors: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Enid
authors: E
authors: Selkirk
keywords: children; families; grounded theory; illness and disease, chronic; parenting; social constructionism