Understanding lived experiences through multiple perspectives: Caregiving as an exemplar

A Qualitative Study of Caregiving for Adolescents and Young Adults With Spinal Cord Injuries: Lessons From Lived Experiences

“…The intent of this research was to improve our understanding of caregiving in day-to-day life for AYAs with SCIs from viewpoints of those with first-hand experiences. Our previous research 26 indicated that eliciting multiple perspectives on caregiving can illuminate unique aspects of care, reveal ways vulnerability and fatigue are linked to emotional support, and bring us closer to how experiences are felt and negotiated in everyday life. This paper adds to these findings by illustrating the complexity of informal caregiving practices, including emotional work, that cannot be disentangled from developmental goals and needs and may involve a network of people with different roles and relationships to the AYAs.…”

“…This research was part of a larger study to understand experiences of AYAs with SCIs and their caregivers in home and community life; study methods are detailed in a separate paper. 26 We used narrative and phenomenological methods to observe lives as lived 27,28 and to capture individual and collective voices, representing experiences and related perspectives. [29][30][31] These approaches provide "thick descriptions" 32 of individually situated circumstances with good ecological validity.…”

Editorial

“…The final two articles address expansions, with Haywood and Lawlor (2019) proposing a methodological expansion and Townsend and Hocking (2019) proposing an expanded way of thinking and writing about learning and knowing occupation. Haywood and Lawlor (2019) propose that integrating data from the perspectives of multiple actors who are sharing experiences or co-ordinating actions can heighten understanding of various aspects of the nature of experiences.…”

“…The final two articles address expansions, with Haywood and Lawlor (2019) proposing a methodological expansion and Townsend and Hocking (2019) proposing an expanded way of thinking and writing about learning and knowing occupation. Haywood and Lawlor (2019) propose that integrating data from the perspectives of multiple actors who are sharing experiences or co-ordinating actions can heighten understanding of various aspects of the nature of experiences. They illustrate the thick, situational, and complex understandings of occupation that can be achieved by integrating multiple perspectives through sharing results from a study of caregiving as an occupation that conducted separate interviews and observations with young adults with spinal cord injuries and their nominated caregivers.…”

“…An additional article by Haywood and Lawlor (2019) addresses the utility of employing methodologies that integrate multiple perspectives to understand lived experiences of occupation. The final article, by Townsend and Hocking (2019) invites submissions to a special section of the journal, specifically, 'Learning and Knowing Occupation'.…”