ADOLESCENTS' EXPERIENCE OF A PARENTAL TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

This study explores the experiences of four adolescents, each living with a parent who has sustained a traumatic brain injury, against the theoretical backdrop of existential-phenomenological psychology. In-depth interviews were conducted and analysed within the context of the existential phenomenology, in an attempt to gain a deep understanding of the psychologically complex themes and patterns embedded in the experience. The phenomenon of parental traumatic brain injury was characterised by denial, anger, grief, guilt, anxiety, over-protectiveness, social isolation, and change in many areas of the participants' lives. The adolescents coped using both approaches and avoidance styles of coping. Religion was a theme in the lives of all four adolescents. Despite the professed negative impact of the experience of having a traumatically brain-injured parent, the adolescents in the current study managed to find some degree of positive meaning in having to cope with such a traumatic event and its consequences. The results are interpreted within an existential-phenomenological psychology framework.