A Study on the Lived Experience in Adolescents with Physical Disability

지체장애 청소년의 장애경험

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the lived experience of adolescents with physical handicap by means of the Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The participants were 15 adolescents, 10-19 years old, who were experiencing physical handicap. Significant statements from data were extracted. From these formulated meanings, 27 themes, 10 clusters of theme and 4 categories were constructed. Major theme clusters that were emerged from the analysis are 'denial', 'despair', ’social isolation', ’being despised', ’not being treated as a member of society', ’getting the power in love around people', ’accepting the physical handicap', ’feeling the joy and one's life worth living', ’depending on the religion', and 'the feeling of achievement by the effort and the service'. In order to help the adolescents with physical handicap overcome their difficulty and cope to the social environment, nurses need to understand the essential theme clusters of the experience of adolescents with physical disability.