Abstract
Perceptions of vulnerability to illness are strongly infl uenced by
the salience given to personal experience of illness in the family. This article
proposes that this salience is created through autobiographical narrative,
both as individual life story and collectively shaped family history. The
article focuses on responses related to health in the family drawn from semistructured interviews with women in a qualitative study exploring midlife
women’s health. Uncertainty about the future was a major emergent theme.
Most respondents were worried about a specifi ed condition such as heart
disease or breast cancer. Many women were uncertain about whether illness
in the family was inherited. Some felt certain that illness in the family meant
that they were more vulnerable to illness or that their relatives’ ageing would
be mirrored in their own inevitable decline, while a few expressed cautious
optimism about the future. In order to elucidate these responses, we focused on
narratives in which family members’ appearance was discussed and compared
to that of others in the family. The visualization of both kinship and the effects
of illness led to strong similarities being seen as grounds for worry. This led
to some women distancing themselves from the legacies of illness in their
families. Women tended to look at the whole family as the context for their
perceptions of vulnerability, developing complex patterns of resemblance or
difference within their families.
the salience given to personal experience of illness in the family. This article
proposes that this salience is created through autobiographical narrative,
both as individual life story and collectively shaped family history. The
article focuses on responses related to health in the family drawn from semistructured interviews with women in a qualitative study exploring midlife
women’s health. Uncertainty about the future was a major emergent theme.
Most respondents were worried about a specifi ed condition such as heart
disease or breast cancer. Many women were uncertain about whether illness
in the family was inherited. Some felt certain that illness in the family meant
that they were more vulnerable to illness or that their relatives’ ageing would
be mirrored in their own inevitable decline, while a few expressed cautious
optimism about the future. In order to elucidate these responses, we focused on
narratives in which family members’ appearance was discussed and compared
to that of others in the family. The visualization of both kinship and the effects
of illness led to strong similarities being seen as grounds for worry. This led
to some women distancing themselves from the legacies of illness in their
families. Women tended to look at the whole family as the context for their
perceptions of vulnerability, developing complex patterns of resemblance or
difference within their families.
| Original language | Undefined/Unknown |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 275 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Health |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2008 |