The Lived Experience of Mothers Mentally Handicapped Daughters Having Menarche at Puberty

Lee, Myung Sook

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the structure of mothers of mentally handicapped daughters' lived experience, to apprehend the connectedness of the structure of the experience with concept of Parse's human becoming theory, and to provide a foundation for nursing research and education. Data collection was conducted from October 1995 to April 1996. Research participants were eight mothers of mentally handicapped daughters whose ages ranged from 12 to 18 attending special schools located in either Inchon or Seoul. The researcher had interviews with them over their lived experience conducted tape recorded, and made an analysis according to Parse's "human becoming research methodology." The data were collected using the dialogical engagement process "I and You," the participant researcher and the participant subject. The data were analyzed using the extraction-synthesis and heuristic interpretation. The structural integration is illustrated in the following: 1) Realizing the mother's role of mentally handicapped daughters and admitting situation. 2) Concealing a part of their relationship with others is interpreted as revealing-concealing. 3) Their fight back voluntarily to improve the situation is interpreted as powering. The conceptual integration which emerged was the lived experience of mothers is powering through the revealing-concealing and connection-separating of valuing.