Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

Exploring the psychosocial impact of having a child with spina bifida

O’Connor, Katie and Hevey, David (2025) Exploring the psychosocial impact of having a child with spina bifida. Discover Psychology, 5 (75). ISSN 2731-4537

Abstract
Parents of children with physical disabilities such as spina bifida (SB) are faced with a series of long-term difficulties, placing considerable strain on both psychological and social resources. Although there is a small amount of quantitative literature pertaining to the psychosocial impact of having a child with SB, there is a lack of qualitative studies assessing the impacts of caring for a child with SB. Thus, this study sought to qualitatively explore the psychosocial impact of having a child with SB. We aimed to understand what are the psychosocial impacts associated with having a child with SB, how are such individuals supported, and what recommendations do these parents have to better support parents of children with SB. A qualitative cross-sectional design was implemented with semi-structured online interviews. 12 participants were recruited using purposive sampling and interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. We identified five themes relating to the psychosocial impact of having a child with SB: balancing daily life demands, social challenges and relationship changes, emotional impact, benefits of social support networks and inadequacy of psychological supports for parents. The findings underscore the critical need for the improvement of psychological support services tailored for parents of children with SB.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Spina bifida, Neural tube defects, Psychosocial impact, Disability, Qualitative study
Subjects:Medical Sciences > Health
Medical Sciences > Psychology
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Psychology
Publisher:Springer Cham
Official URL:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44202-0...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:31546
Deposited On:17 Sep 2025 09:39 by Gordon Kennedy . Last Modified 17 Sep 2025 09:39
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of s44202-025-00392-x.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
1MB
Metrics

Altmetric Badge

Dimensions Badge

Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record