IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpsyxx/v12y2020i2p139-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fathers’ experiences of caring for an adult child with psychosis: a qualitative study

Author

Listed:
  • Bina Sharma
  • Nicola Green
  • Saskia Keville

Abstract

Previous research exploring parental experiences of caring has highlighted both the rewarding nature and associated difficulties with this role. Within these studies the majority of parents have been mothers, resulting in minimal understanding about fathers’ experiences. The aim of the current study was to explore how fathers described and made sense of their caring experiences. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven participants, including six biological fathers and one step-father. Interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five themes emerged: “Father versus carer”; “Change in quality of the relationship with child”; ‘To share or not to share; “Acceptance is a struggle”; and “Mental health services: inconsistency versus luck”. Previous research has indicated a minimal role of fathers. In contrast the current study found fathers were deeply committed to their caring role, viewing this as central to being a parent, caring unconditionally for their adult child with additional needs. Fathers can play a crucial and unconditional role in the care of their adult children. With long-term complex conditions, such as psychoses, it is important for services to recognise the contribution of fathers, to enable greater involvement whilst also offering support for them to help sustain their important caring role.

Suggested Citation

  • Bina Sharma & Nicola Green & Saskia Keville, 2020. "Fathers’ experiences of caring for an adult child with psychosis: a qualitative study," Psychosis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 139-150, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:139-150
    DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2019.1704044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17522439.2019.1704044
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17522439.2019.1704044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:139-150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPSY20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.