The experience of the self in Canadian youth living with anxiety: A qualitative study

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Background Anxiety can create serious disruption in the life and mind of youth who are affected. Youth living with anxiety suffer a wealth of physical and psychological challenges, yet little is known about how anxiety influences the sense of the self. The purpose of this research was to explore the experience of the self in a sample of Canadian youth living with anxiety. Materials and methods The qualitative research approach of hermeneutic phenomenology was used. The sample consisted of 58 Canadian youth with anxiety, 44 females and 14 males between the ages of 10 and 22. Youth took part in open-ended interviewing, ecomaps, and photovoice. Data analysis followed a staged process, informed by Max van Manen. All sources of data were included in the analysis to form thematic statements. Results Entering into the lifeworld of youth revealed that they suffered deeply. A fractured sense of self underlined their experience, setting up for a great deal of self-scrutiny and a lack of self-compassion. They experienced a profound sense of responsibility for others at the loss of being-there-for-oneself. Navigating their social sphere presented an additional challenge. However, youth were genuinely interested in self-discovery through awareness and reflection. Conclusions The phenomenological accounts by youth on living with anxiety reinforce the challenges they experienced within themselves that give rise to a great deal of inner turmoil. Care and support to youth with anxiety requires an understanding of the ways in which the self may be fractured by their experiences with anxiety. Providing young people with an opportunity to share with others who had similar lived experiences can serve to contribute to a sense of healing for youth, while also providing a safe space in which young people can let down their guard and openly acknowledge or share their experiences without fear of stigmatization

Youth’s narratives about family members smoking: parenting the parent- it’s not fair!

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Successful cancer prevention policies and programming for youth must be based on a solid understanding of youth’s conceptualization of cancer and cancer prevention. Accordingly, a qualitative study examining youth’s perspectives of cancer and its prevention was undertaken. Not surprisingly, smoking (i.e., tobacco cigarette smoking) was one of the dominant lines of discourse in the youth’s narratives. This paper reports findings of how youth conceptualize smoking with attention to their perspectives on parental and family-related smoking issues and experiences.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seventy-five Canadian youth ranging in age from 11–19 years participated in the study. Six of the 75 youth had a history of smoking and 29 had parents with a history of smoking. Youth were involved in traditional ethnographic methods of interviewing and photovoice. Data analysis involved multiple levels of analysis congruent with ethnography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Youth’s perspectives of parents and other family members’ cigarette smoking around them was salient as represented by the theme: <it>It’s not fair.</it> Youth struggled to make sense of why parents would smoke around their children and perceived their smoking as an unjust act. The theme was supported by four subthemes: <it>1) parenting the parent about the dangers of smoking; 2) the good/bad parent; 3) distancing family relationships; and 4) the prisoner</it>. Instead of being <it>talked to</it> about smoking it was more common for youth to share stories of <it>talking to</it> their parents about the dangers of smoking. Parents who did not smoke were seen by youth as the good parent, as opposed to the bad parent who smoked. Smoking was an agent that altered relationships with parents and other family members. Youth who lived in homes where they were exposed to cigarette smoke felt like a trapped prisoner.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Further research is needed to investigate youth’s perceptions about parental cigarette smoking as well as possible linkages between youth exposed to second hand smoke in their home environment and emotional and lifestyle-related health difficulties. Results emphasize the relational impact of smoking when developing anti-tobacco and cancer prevention campaigns. Recognizing the potential toll that second-hand smoke can have on youth’s emotional well-being, health care professionals are encouraged to give youth positive messages in coping with their parents’ smoking behaviour.</p

African Refugee Youth’s Experiences of Navigating Different Cultures in Canada: A “Push and Pull” Experience

Refugee youth face challenges in navigating different cultures in destination countries and require better support. However, we know little about the adaptation experiences of African refugee youth in Canada. Accordingly, this paper presents the adaptation experiences of African refugee youth and makes recommendations for ways to support youth. Twenty-eight youth took part in semi-structured interviews. Using a thematic analysis approach, qualitative data revealed four themes of: (1) ‘disruption in the family,’ where youth talked about being separated from their parent(s) and the effect on their adaptation; (2) ‘our cultures are different,’ where youth shared differences between African and mainstream Canadian culture; (3) ‘searching for identity: a cultural struggle,’ where youth narrated their struggles in finding identity; and (4) ‘learning the new culture,’ where youth narrated how they navigate African and Canadian culture. Overall, the youth presented with challenges in adapting to cultures in Canada and highlighted how these struggles were influenced by their migration journey. To promote better settlement and adaptation, youth could benefit from supports and activities that promote cultural awareness with attention to their migration experiences. Service providers could benefit from newcomer-friendly and culturally sensitive training on salient ways of how experiences of multiple cultures affect integration outcomes

Accessing mental health services for a child living with anxiety: Parents' lived experience and recommendations.

BackgroundLittle research attention has been given to understanding the lived experience of parents who access mental health services in the context of child anxiety disorders. This paper reports on findings specific to parents' lived experience of accessing services for their child living with anxiety and the recommendations they provided for improving access.MethodsWe used the qualitative research approach of hermeneutic phenomenology. The sample included 54 Canadian parents of youth living with an anxiety disorder. Parents took part in one semi-structured and one open-ended interview. We used a 4 staged data analysis process informed by van Manen's approach and Levesque and colleagues' framework of access to healthcare.ResultsThe majority of parents reported being female (85%), white (74%), and single parents (39%). Parents' ability to seek and obtain services was affected by not knowing when or where to access services, having to learn to navigate the system, limited availability of services, lack of timely services and interim supports, limited financial resources, and clinicians' dismissal of parental concerns and knowledge. Provider (ability to listen), parent (willingness to participate in therapy), child (same race/ethnicity as provider), and service characteristics (cultural sensitivity) influenced whether parents perceived services as approachable, acceptable, and appropriate. Parents' recommendations focused on: (1) improving the availability, timeliness, and coordination of services, (2) providing supports for parents and the child to facilitate obtaining care (education, interim supports), (3) improving communication with and among healthcare professionals, (4) the need to recognize parents' experience-based knowledge, and (5) encouraging parents to take care of themselves and advocate for their child.ConclusionsOur findings point to possible avenues (parents' ability, service characteristics) that can be targeted to improve service access. As experts on their situation, parents' recommendations highlight priority needs of relevance to health care professionals and policymakers