HOLE IN THE HEART: GRANDPARENTING THE INFANT WITH DOWN SYNDROME.
Contributors: New York University.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 408
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The investigator's objective was to learn more about the grandparenting role and to generate practice theory in nursing care of the extended family having a member with a disability. The experience of three grandparent pairs following the birth of a grandchild with Down syndrome was explored. Data, obtained from interviews conducted over a six month period, were analyzed using the constant, comparative method. Four major categories, Family Biography, Grandparent Role Realization, Infant Performance, and Parent Performance were discovered which affected and were affected by the emergent basic social process of Assimilation. Grandparents were assimilated into the Down Syndrome world and the infants into theirs in conceptual stages represented by a Symbolic Interaction framework depicting how people participate in social worlds. Degree of participation is symbolized by Strangers, Tourists, Regulars, and Insiders who are distinguished by their particular orientations, experiences, relationships, and commitments to a given world. Implications for practice and proposals for future research were drawn from the emergent substantive theory, as well as, the grandparents specific recommendations.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: B, page: 6039.

Thesis (PH.D.)--NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, 1995.

School code: 0146.