Abstract:

ADHD is a diagnosis which has had great increase among children in recent years. Research on and attention to this disorder have mostly been directed towards efforts related to the disorder in general and medication in particular. Little attention has been paid to the parents and their experiences in the course of determining the disorder from which these children are suffering.

Thus the aim of this study is to learn about the parents’ experiences from the point when they first noticed something “particular” in their child, and up to the point when a diagnosis was finally made. Nine parents have been interviewed, five women and four men. A phenomenological study has been undertaken, based on the narrative interview method, Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), as explained by Wengraf (2001). The parents were asked one question, known as ”single question aimed at inducing narratives”. During their analysis, the authors have relied on Giorgis’ phenomenological analysis model (1985), with some modifications. The authors developed two more steps in the analysis model that leads to the discussion.

The application of these two methods yielded a number of findings. Twenty-six themes have been grouped into five main themes. These themes and main themes have been further organised in two flow- and interaction models, in order to clarify the parents’ experience of chaos. The parents describe a turning point when everything falls into place for the family. The discussion of the findings is based on Antonovsky’s theory of sense of coherence (SOC) (1991).