Parental Caregiving Experiences and Developmental Disability

Abstract

This study tries to the caregiving experiences of parents having children with newlinedevelopmental disabilities. Using an Interpretive Phenomenological design, it tries to explicate the life world of parents and the practices of caregiving. The study relies on narratives, which were elicited from parents through in-depth interview method. The narratives are then analyzed thematically. It examines the social context of caregiving and then explores how parents make sense of their parenthood vis-à-vis personhood of their children with disability. The study explicates that the caregiving of children with disability involves a range of actions and emotions that require strong personal commitments from parents. At the same time it is also noted that the meanings that parents attach to their caregiving experiences are often diverse. Therefore, the idea of caregiving and parenthood have been constructed and maintained through diversity of experiences and contexts. This study also examines the experience of stigma that the parents encounter in private and public sphere which affects the life choices of both the newlineparents and children. newline