Resilience of adolescent children with allergic diseases : Adolescent patient narratives

Abstract

 This study investigated characteristics of resilience manifested by adolescent patients with allergic diseases, based on narratives about their disease-related experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 adolescent patients with an allergic disease, and qualitative analysis was used to extracted emergent themes. Analysis extracted the following 7 primary categories : “Inability to accept the disease,” “Depending on parents,” “Anxiety about the future,” “Not understood other,” “Building good interpersonal relationships,” “Receiving support,” and “Self-management of the disease.” Results revealed that adolescent patients with allergic diseases had anxieties and fears about their disease, and experienced both maladjustment events that occurred due to the disease and disease-related consequences. Therefore, while encouraging them, it is important to provide them with support to facilitate their continued self-management of disease, accepting the disease, and promoting good interpersonal relationships.