Transgenerational view of the meanings and behaviour structures around asthma : an ecosystemic approach

Abstract

This study aims at giving a three-generational perspective on the meanings that a family attaches to asthma and on how these meanings recursively informed their behaviours. The wider social context was taken into consideration, as well as how this impacted on the family's meanings and beliefs around asthma. The researcher contrasted the biomedical and the ecosystemic epistemologies and showed that the differences between them can be seen as differences in logical typing. Ecosystemic epistemology and social constructionism were used to guide the researcher in making distinctions and arriving at patterns and themes that fit the family under study. The themes and patterns, all centered around the idea that asthma is an expression of a need for emotional closeness in the face of an impending threat to the family's established belief in closeness and enmeshment.

Hierdie studie is gerig op 'n driegenerasie-perspektief aangaande die betekenisse wat 'n familie assosieer met asma en hoe hierdie betekenisse hulle gedrag telkens be"lnvloed. 'n Breer sosiale konteks is ook 'n aanmerking geneem, asook die impak hiervan op die familie se betekenisse en oortuigings omtrent asma. Die navorser het die biomediese en ekosistemiese epistomologiee vergelyk en het aangetoon dat die verskille tussen hulle gesien kan word as verskille in logiese tipering. Die navorser is gelei deur die ekosistemiese epistomologie en sosiale konstruktionisme om onderskeide te maak en om die gesin se patrone en temas te identifiseer. Hierdie temas en patrone wat deur die navorser geskep is gedurende die interaksie met die familie, het alles gesentreer om die idee dat asma die uitdrukking is van 'n behoefte aan emosionele nabyheid, wanneer die gesin se vasgestelde geloof in nabyheid bedreig word.