Lives of Two Korean Mothers of Children With Schizophrenia:. An Interpretive Approach

BACKGROUND: Although many persons with schizophrenia live at home and rely on family members for support, few studies have looked at the experience from the perspective of the family member as a caregiver.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to understand the experiences of Korean mothers who are taking care of children with schizophrenia.

DESIGN: The study method was Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology. This method enabled the researcher to seek out, from two Korean mothers' stories, their meanings of life in the framework of their sociocultural context.

RESULTS: The mothers' caring experiences played an important part in their life. Their caring experiences led to despair or to the creation of a new way of life, depending on bow free the mothers were from the ideology of "super mother"; how they perceived their past before their child became il and whether they thought of caring as a burden or as a new challenge in their lives.

CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the importance of the interpretive approach in gaining a full understanding of caregivers' lives. It also highlights the needs for nurses to carefully assess and intervene when working with families of mentally il persons, especially when the culture of the client is unfamiliar.