Sense of self after brain injury. V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sense of self after brain injury
IRAS ID
304147
Contact name
Craig Peak
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
An acquired brain injury (ABI) is an injury caused to the brain since birth which can be life changing and difficult to cope with. They can impact a person’s ability to walk, talk, their thinking skills, and their quality of life. Family, friendships, relationships, employment, hobbies and interests are all thought to contribute to a person’s identity and can change after a brain injury.
Research studies have found that other chronic health conditions can change a person’s identity or ‘sense-of-self’. People who struggle to adjust to these often show greater levels of distress and less acceptance. This process has been termed ‘enmeshment’. How enmeshed a person is with their health condition has been found to affect a person’s future sense-of-self: what they hope to be and fear of being in the future. However, no study has yet investigated these aspects of identity in people with an ABI.
To address this, we plan to ask adults with an ABI to complete questionnaires either online (with the help of a family member/care-giver if required) or remotely with the research team via telephone or video call. Participants will then be invited to complete an interviewer-administered questionnaire and asked to think about how they might view themselves now and in the future. Participants will be recruited from two NHS services, head injury charities such as Headway and online via Twitter.
We hope to determine if the findings from other health conditions also apply to people with an ABI. If identity and ABI are enmeshed, and can predict distress, acceptance and adjustment, it will provide a greater insight into identity change in this area. This will inform psychological treatment as targeting identity change, in terms of re-evaluating the sense-of-self, should lead to a reduction in levels of distress and an improvement in quality of life.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
22/WS/0034
Date of REC Opinion
29 Apr 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion