Analysis of Critical Incidents and Shifting Perspectives: Transitions in Illness Careers Among Adolescents With ADHD.

Williamson, Pamela; Koro-Ljungberg, Mirka E.; Bussing, Regina

Adolescence represents a developmental period during which the severity of mental health problems for children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might change. It is a time when teens are consolidating their selfidentity and possibly questioning the label of an ADHD diagnosis, treatment, and types of interventions. In this study we investigated the shared critical events related to help seeking reported by 8 teenagers with ADHD, their mothers, and their teachers and how the reported events and constructed shared focus on specific problems might explain teenagers' transitions in their illness careers. Data collected through a qualitative application of the experience sampling method illuminated diverse illness career transitions, including continuing treatment, transitioning from being treated to untreated or from being untreated to treated, and remaining untreated. Our findings support a model of shifting perspectives on illness and wellness among adolescents with ADHD, rather than a progression of adaptation to a chronic disorder.

QUALITATIVE research; ATTENTION-deficit hyperactivity disorder; CHILDREN with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; BEHAVIOR disorders in children; ADOLESCENT psychopathology; MENTAL illness; DIAGNOSIS; THERAPEUTICS; CHRONIC diseases

Qualitative Health Research, 2009, Vol 19, Issue 3, p352

1049-7323

Academic Journal

10.1177/1049732308329683