The Development of Health Lifestyles in Families Experiencing Disability

Abstract

The family system is an important contributor to one’s development of health lifestyles or the patterns of health behaviors one engages in. Research has yet to explore how health lifestyles develop within families or how disability may affect this process. This study uses qualitative data collected from parents and key informants in two U.S. communities to address this gap in the literature. Findings capture a process through which health lifestyles develop in families with a child with a disability. This process revealed that parents first become more conscious of the importance of health as a result of having a child with a disability, which led to changes in parent identity and was ultimately translated into primarily positive changes to family health behaviors. This process appears to be largely driven by community norms and stigmas associated with disability.