Chronic illness as biographical contingency? Young people's experience of asthma. / Monaghan, Lee F.; Gabe, Jonathan.
In: Sociology of Health and Illness , Vol. 37, No. 8, 11.2015, p. 1236–1253.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Chronic illness as biographical contingency? Young people's experience of asthma. / Monaghan, Lee F.; Gabe, Jonathan.
In: Sociology of Health and Illness , Vol. 37, No. 8, 11.2015, p. 1236–1253.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Chronic illness as biographical contingency? Young people's experience of asthma
AU - Monaghan, Lee F.
AU - Gabe, Jonathan
PY - 2015/11
Y1 - 2015/11
N2 - Much research on chronic illness, which views the experience as disruptive, is adult‐focused though there is an emerging literature on children's and young people's experiences. Drawing on 31 interviews conducted with young people diagnosed with asthma in south‐west Ireland, this article contributes to this literature. The sample includes boys (n = 15) and girls (n = 16) aged between 5 and 17 from the Irish Traveller community and the larger settled community. The study also explores the potential value of what might be called biographical contingency. This concept refers to the way in which a chronic illness may be an ‘only sometimes’ problem and takes account of the ‘now you see it, now you don't’ nature of a condition that varies in terms of its symptoms, meanings and consequences. In concluding, we consider the uses and limitations of this concept and the interpretivist paradigm that typically informs qualitative research on the illness experience.
AB - Much research on chronic illness, which views the experience as disruptive, is adult‐focused though there is an emerging literature on children's and young people's experiences. Drawing on 31 interviews conducted with young people diagnosed with asthma in south‐west Ireland, this article contributes to this literature. The sample includes boys (n = 15) and girls (n = 16) aged between 5 and 17 from the Irish Traveller community and the larger settled community. The study also explores the potential value of what might be called biographical contingency. This concept refers to the way in which a chronic illness may be an ‘only sometimes’ problem and takes account of the ‘now you see it, now you don't’ nature of a condition that varies in terms of its symptoms, meanings and consequences. In concluding, we consider the uses and limitations of this concept and the interpretivist paradigm that typically informs qualitative research on the illness experience.
KW - children; asthma; chronic illness; normalisation; stigma; inequality
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.12301
DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.12301
M3 - Article
VL - 37
SP - 1236
EP - 1253
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
SN - 0141-9889
IS - 8
ER -