Acquired Brain Injury Parent & Adolescent Grounded Theory Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative investigation of the process of identity change and adjustment in response to acquired brain injury in adolescence from the perspectives of adolescents and their parents
IRAS ID
213891
Contact name
Ciara Glennon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Identity change (or ‘adjustment’) after acquired brain injury (ABI) is a process which can lead to survivors feeling that they have lost a sense of their ‘old’ self (the person that they were before) and that they need to rediscover this, or else develop a ‘new’ self-identity (an idea of who they are now). However, research has so far focused more on adults than on adolescents. This is a gap in our understanding, because adolescence is a time when young people are still trying to figure out who they are (according to identity theories), and adolescents are more likely to live at home with their parents than adults, so the process of identity change might be different during this stage.
I will interview 6 adolescents (10 to 19 years old) with acquired brain injury and also separately interview one respective parent per adolescent. I want to ask the adolescent what it felt like just ‘being them’ after their brain injury, and in what ways they felt the same or different, and also what things helped or made the process of identity adjustment more difficult for them. I want to ask their parent about what ways that they noticed the young person changed, and what ways that their role as a parent might have changed. Participants will be asked about which parts of the young person's identity might seem like they were ‘lost’, or changed, or developed after the acquired brain injury. I will use a type of qualitative method to explore the information the participants give me to try and understand the process of identity after acquired brain injury for the people in this study. The findings of this study might mean that we can better understand these changes and how to support young people after ABI, and their families/parents.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1586
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion