Adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease feel ambivalent towards their parents’ concern for them

Abstract

This is a grounded theory study to identify concepts for describing how adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) respond to their parents' concern for them. Ten adolescent boys and seven girls were interviewed. In the analysis four main categories emerged: ambivalence, ability/inability, compliance/resistance and trust/distrust. We found ambivalence to be the most distinctive theme to appear in the way in which these young people described how they felt about their parents' response to their disease. The core category ambivalence was expressed as an oscillation between seeking close contact with one's parents or, sometimes, staving them off, one moment feeling anxiously dependent upon them or turning to them for protection and support and the next, trying to achieve a dialogue with them. The core category comprised three subcategories, ability/inability, compliance/resistance and trust/distrust. The clinical support for young individuals with IBD should include an awareness of the simultaneous existence of conflicting attitudes, reactions and emotions.

Revealing and Concealing Ill Identity: A Performance Narrative of IBD Disclosure

“…Research on IBD and communication primarily addresses the physiological or psychological (i.e., depression) characteristics of IBD or how IBD is managed in health care (between provider and patients). Out of the 193 articles on IBD found on EBSCO, only a few addressed issues such as quality of life (Ghosh & Mitchell, 2007;Hashimoto & Rinsho, 2005), family-focusing primarily on adolescents (Gerson, Schonholtz, Grega, & Barr, 1998;Herzer, Denson, Baldassano, & Hommel, 2011;MacPhee, Hoffenberg, & Feranchak, 1998;Reichenberg, Lindfred, & Saalman, 2007), stress management (Milne, Joachim & Niedhardt, 1986), and alternative or complementary forms of treatment (Hilsden, Scott, & Verhoef, 1998;Keefer & Keshavarzian, 2007). Of those articles, only one directly addresses IBD in the field of communication studies (Defenbaugh, 2008) and two examine IBD as an invisible illness requiring frequent concealing and disclosing (Defenbaugh, 2011;Myers, 2004).…”

Strategies to improve quality of life in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease

“…The other theme categories that emerged were ability/inability, compliance/resistance, and trust/distrust, suggesting that it is important to have an awareness of the simultaneous existence of conflicting attitudes, reactions, and emotions. 72 Finally, in youth ages 16 -21 years with IBD in New Zealand, themes of stress related to CD and ambivalence were common. 73 Collectively, these studies support the relationship between illness experience and perception and HRQOL in adolescents and young adults.…”

Balancing my disease: women's perspectives of living with inflammatory bowel disease

“…, Reichenberg et al . ) and adults diagnosed with IBD (Mukherjee et al . , Myers , Fletcher & Schneider , Defenbaugh , Jamieson et al .…”