Self-Change in Facilitating Empowerment
Applying a Narrative Perspective to Adolescents with a Mental Health Diagnosis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/22535Keywords:
Adolescents, empowerment, qualitative, narrative, self-change, mental healthAbstract
Youth empowerment is a critical research area because it has implications for reducing adolescent mental health stigma while improving their life trajectory, engagement in treatment and meaningful opportunities, and increasing self-esteem. The present inquiry is derived from a larger study and strives to enhance knowledge of youth empowerment by using Frank’s rhetoric of self-change—a form of narrative analysis—to understand events and reactive experiences of illness as occasions for changing the self. This narrative approach facilitated the development of a youth empowerment process because of its ability to identify similar characteristics across the three cases of youths included in this analysis. Actively participating in age/developmentally appropriate activities put the adolescents on a trajectory towards attaining milestones in a timely manner coinciding with the developmental timeline of peers without mental health issues. Additional research is needed to understand how the identified factors promote empowerment among adolescents with mental health issues. Narrative research has implications for clinical social work because it illuminates strengths that can be beneficial in promoting positive interventions.
References
Aspy, C. B., Oman, R. F., Vesely, S. K., McLeroy, K., Rodine, S., & Marshall, L. (2004). Adolescent violence: The protective effects of youth assets. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82(3), 268-276. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2004.tb00310.x
Boeije, H. (2002). A purposeful approach to the constant comparative method in the analysis of qualitative interviews. Quality and Quantity, 36(4), 391-409.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020909529486
Braun, V., Clarke, V., & Terry, G. (2014). Thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Clinical Health Psychology, 24, 95-114.
Bushe, G. R., & Kassam, A. F. (2005). When is appreciative inquiry transformational? A meta-case analysis. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 41(2), 161-181. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886304270337
Charmaz, K. (1994). Identity dilemmas of chronically ill men. Sociological Quarterly, 35(2), 269-288. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1994.tb00410.x
Corrigan, P. W. (2005). On the stigma of mental illness: Practical strategies for research and social change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/10887-000
Corrigan, P., & Watson, A. (2002).The paradox of self-stigma and mental illness. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 35-53.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.9.1.35
Crossley, M. L. (2000). Narrative psychology, trauma and the study of self/identity. Theory & Psychology, 10(4), 527-546.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354300104005
Floersch, J., Townsend, L., Longhofer, J., Munson, M., Winbush, V., Kranke, D., ... Findling, R. L. (2009). Adolescent experience of psychotropic treatment. Transcultural Psychiatry, 46(1), 157-179. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461509102292
Frank, A. W. (1993). The rhetoric of self‐change: Illness experience as narrative. Sociological Quarterly, 34(1), 39-52. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1993.tb00129.x
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Herzlich, C., & Pierret, J. (1987). Illness and self in society. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hinshaw, S. P. (2005). The stigmatization of mental illness in children and parents: Developmental issues, family concerns, and research needs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46(7), 714-734. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01456.x
Hinshaw, S. P. (2009). The mark of shame: Stigma of mental illness and an agenda for change. NY: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, J. (1997). Subjective experience of persistent psychiatric disorder: Schizophrenia and depression among U.S. Latinos and Euro-Americans. British Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 20-25. doi: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.171.1.20
Kaufman, J., Birmaher, B., Brent, D., Rao, U., Flynn, C., Moreci, P.,…Ryan, N. (1997). Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children-present and lifetime version (K-SADS-PL): Initial reliability and validity data. Journal of American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 980-988.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199707000-00021
Kranke, D., Floersch, J., Kranke, B., & Munson, M. (2011). A qualitative investigation of self-stigma among adolescents taking psychiatric medication. Psychiatric Services, 62(8), 893-899. doi: https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.62.8.pss6208_0893
Kranke, D., Floersch, J., Townsend, L., & Munson, M. (2010). Stigma experience among adolescents prescribed psychiatric medications. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(4), 496-505. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.11.002
Kroger, J. (2007). Identity development: Adolescence through adulthood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Leavey, J. (2005). Youth experiences of living with mental health problems: Emergence, loss, adaptation and recovery (ELAR). Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 24(2), 109-126. doi: https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2005-0018
Link, B. G., Cullen, F. T., Struening, E., Shrout, P. E., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1989). A modified labeling theory approach to mental disorders: An empirical assessment. American Sociological Review, 54, 400-423. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2095613
McMahon, L., Murray, C., Sanderson, J., & Daiches, A. (2012). “Governed by the pain:” Narratives of fibromyalgia. Disability and Rehabilitation, 34(16), 1358-1366.
doi: https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2011.645114
Merikangas, K. R., He, J. P., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., ... Swendsen, J. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in US adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(10), 980-989. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017
Morton, M. H., & Montgomery, P. (2013). Youth empowerment programs for improving adolescents’ self-efficacy and self-esteem: A systematic review. Research on Social Work Practice, 23(1), 22-33. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731512459967
Moses, T. (2010). Being treated differently: Stigma experiences with family, peers, and school staff among adolescents with mental health disorders. Social Science & Medicine, 70(7), 985-993. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.12.022
Muhr, T. (1993). Atlas.ti Software Development. Berlin.
Ozer, E. J., & Schotland, M. (2011). Psychological empowerment among urban youth: Measure development and relationship to psychosocial functioning. Health Education & Behavior, 38(4), 348-356.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198110373734
Rusch, N., Lieb, K., Bohus, M., & Corrigan, P. (2006) Brief reports: Self-stigma, empowerment, and perceived legitimacy of discrimination among women with mental illness. Psychiatric Services, 57(3), 399-402.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.57.3.399
Taylor, V. A. (1996). Rock-a-by baby: Feminism, self-help, and postpartum depression. NY: Routledge Psychology Press.
Thornhill, H., Clare, L., & May, R. (2004). Escape, enlightenment and endurance: Narratives of recovery from psychosis. Anthropology & Medicine, 11(2), 181-199. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470410001678677
Wilkinson, S. (2000). Women with breast cancer talking causes: Comparing content, biographical and discursive analyses. Feminism & Psychology, 10(4), 431-460.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010004003
Wong, N. T., Zimmerman, M. A., & Parker, E. A. (2010). A typology of youth participation and empowerment for child and adolescent health promotion. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1-2), 100-114. D
oi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9330-0
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
