回首復原路：青少年子女照顧精神障礙父母之回溯性敘事

The Journey to Resilience: A Retrospective Narrative of Teenage Children Caring for Their Parents with Mental Disabilities

本研究邀請在青少年時期有照顧精神障礙父或母之經驗的成人做為研究參與者，藉由回溯的方式蒐集質性資料，探討他們在青少年時期承擔的照顧任務、照顧過程中出現的保護因子及風險因子，以及整體經驗到的復原力與保護機制運作模式。本研究以立意取樣方式深度訪談四位曾於青少年時期照顧精神障礙父或母的成人，並採敘事分析方法，呈現四位受訪者的生命故事。從受訪者擔任照顧者的相關事件「開始」；經由「過程」的分析，尋找受訪者照顧情境中的風險因子及保護因子；最後透過「回顧」，呈現受訪者對於過往經驗的詮釋以及復原力的獨特展現與運作歷程。研究發現受訪者的保護機制運作模式或為接續運作，或為同時運作，視個人不同的處境與不同的發展階段而定。建議提供服務時，專業助人者應對青少年所處之生態有更充分的評估與瞭解，並回應其照顧過程與生命歷程所交織出的經驗。此外，本研究認為面對精神障礙者，家族力量同時展現的協助與壓迫之複雜性，可為華人家庭復原力的架構提供一個討論起點。

In this study, adults who had experience in caring for a parent with a mental disability during adolescence are invited to be the respondents. Qualitative data are collected retrospectively to explore the caregiving tasks they had undertaken, the protective and risk factors that emerged during the caregiving process and the overall experience of the functioning of resilience and protective mechanism. Four respondents who were selected by means of purposive sampling were in-depth interviewed, as their life stories were presented by narrative analysis. “Starting with” the relevant events of the respondents acting as caregivers, through the analysis of the “process”, the protective and risk factors in the caregiving situations were identified, which would be subjected to “retrospective” analysis to interpret the past experiences and the unique manifestation and operation of their resilience to the circumstances. This study found that the patterns of protective mechanism engaged by the respondents were sequential or concurrent, depending on each situation and the stage of development of the events. It is recommended that when providing services, professional helpers should have a better assessment and understanding of young people’s ecology and should respond to the experiences interwoven into their caregiving process and life courses. In addition, this study believed that the complexity of co-existing assistance and oppression under the umbrella of the “family” in the face of dealing with mental disability can serve as a starting point of discussion on the role of Asian family structure in resilience.