Open Collections

See my future : future thinking of adolescents with a progressive life-threatening neurodegenerative illness

University of British Columbia

The construction of meaningful future self-representations is an important part of identity development. For adolescents living with a progressive life-threatening neurodegenerative illness, the projection of self into the future requires the movement into the unknown and uncertain realm of an illness trajectory. The purpose of this study was to examine how adolescents who are living with a progressive life-threatening neurodegenerative illness construct meaningful future self-representations. A narrative approach was utilized as the method of inquiry. Ten adolescents between the ages of 12 and 20 who had been diagnosed with a progressive life-threatening neurodegenerative illness participated in a semi-structured narrative interview. Within the interviews three lines of inquiry were followed, which explored future thinking, possible selves, and continuity in the stories of the selves over time. Data analysis occurred across four readings of the narrative transcripts. The analysis included a stepping-in and stepping-back process, allowing for individual stories to remain contextualized and for collective themes to emerge across the narratives. Major findings confirm future thinking as a contextually based activity, a construction of a range of possible selves both with and without the illness, and an ability to oscillate between these two versions of future selves. As well, the adolescents demonstrated personal continuity in the selves of the past, present, and the future. As an overarching theme, future thinking emerges as a required activity for reasons of coping, personhood, and decision-making. This research makes contributions to developmental science as well as pediatric palliative care as it extends current literature pertaining to future thinking and possible selves, thereby adding to the conceptual and theoretical knowledge base. As well, the findings highlight the importance of developing a healthcare practice that is responsive to the developmental need to create a future self and to explore all aspects of what is possible, as well as impossible.

Text

2012-12-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43712

Social Work

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/