The Experience of Life of the Physically Handicapped Adolescents

지체장애 청소년의 삶의 과정

The purpose of this study was to construct a grounded theory as the basis for developing future nursing interventions by describing and analyzing the holistic lives of the physically handicapped adolescents. The subjects were 10 physically handicapped adolescents who were attending a rehabilitation school located in Kyunggi region and could understand and respond to the questions. The aim and purpose of the study were explained to the subjects, and only those who accepted to participate in the study were selected as the actual study subjects. The study data were collected from July to November 2000. The investigators provided detailed explanations to the subjects about keeping the anonymity of the subjects name and confidentiality of the information provided by the study subjects. The subjects received in-depth interviews by the investigators. Each interview took about 40 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, and each subject received interviews with the range of one to 3 times. All interviews were recorded under the permission of the subjects. The investigators formed field notes after finishing each interview. In the process of data analysis, 'realizing the difficulty due to physical handicap' was found to be the causal condition, whereas' acceptance of physical handicap' was identified as the context. Then, we identified' awaring as the valuable being' as the core phenomenon, 'support from family and social group and spiritual help' as the intervening condition, 'effort for adaptation' as the strategy, and' finding the meaning of life' as the consequence. Through the theoretical model derived from this study, an important aspect the lives of physically handicapped adolescences was identified that' awaring as the valuable being' help them cope better and find the meaning of life in spite of suffering they experience.