Accepting Disability: The Parenting Experience of Fathers With Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

Abstract

This qualitative study describes and analyzes the perceptions and experiences of fathers with spinal cord injury (SCI) regarding their relationship with their children, in the context of social attitudes toward parenting by persons with SCI. The study was conducted within the phenomenological-constructivist paradigm. The sample included 12 males with SCI. All participants were paraplegic Type D1-D12; 2 have incomplete injury to D11 and D12. Data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews designed to understand participants' meanings. Interviews included a brief questionnaire containing sociodemographic items and an interview guide based on the research topics. The model addresses how fathers with SCI cope with negative social attitudes toward their parenting and their actions to facilitate their children's acceptance of and adjustment to the father's disability.