Extended Abstract
Introduction: The health of any society depends on the health of the people of that society, and the health of the people of the society is necessary to have a family in which their psychological, emotional, educational, social and economic needs are sufficiently provided. The family is the first place where a person’s personality and psychological characteristics are formed; Therefore, more than any other environment, it has an impact on the social and personality development of a person; Therefore, it can be said that any problem that threatens the normal functioning of the family is one of the factors that threaten mental health. One of the damaging factors to the family structure is the disability of one of the family members, the disability can be caused by accidents or genetics. Meanwhile, the experiences of people with disabilities facing life issues as well as the society and family facing them are significant. Therefore, the present research is trying to analyze and understand the sociological understanding of disabled people in Ahvaz city in the face of family and society.
Method: The required qualitative data of this research were mainly collected using “semi-structured interviews”. In this type of interview, the researcher prepares a list of questions or simply the main topics of the desired research. This list is called the interview guide sheet and it only specifies the topics that the interview will cover and the interview. There is no obligation to follow the order in asking the questions according to the interview guide sheet. In this type of interview, the subject has enough freedom and discretion in answering the questions. The results of the interviews conducted in this research led to the identification of the main categories and propositions of the research (inquiry about disease biology). In order to select the participants, a targeted method was used; The data collected during the interview process were analyzed through open, central and selective coding.
Findings: According to the results of coding and analysis obtained from the direct quotes of the interviewees, it can be said that their understanding of the family’s encounter with their disability was based on the codes of positive discrimination, negative discrimination, self-confidence and self-worth. Also, the codes of violence, social communication, laws, environmental facilities and social life were among their perception and understanding of society’s encounter with disabled people.
Discussion: Disabled people are one of the special groups of any society, which need scientific studies and especially sociological studies due to their special social, cultural and economic situation and their impact on the society. In the present study, interviews were conducted with 15 people with disabilities in the city of Ahvaz until the data saturation was ensured. In total, the sample group consisted of 6 men and 9 women with an average age of 36 years. 73% of the sample were single and 27% were married. The most type of disability in the sample group was physical and motor (52%) and the rest were blind (27%), polio (19%), deaf (1%) and cerebral palsy (1%). The respondents answered the questions related to how their family faced disability and themselves as disabled. From the analysis of the sentences and views of these people, primary codes were extracted. In the next step, the common and emphasized codes of all the interviewees, including the important codes from the researcher’s point of view, were identified as the final codes along with their sources.
According to the results of open coding and the concepts obtained from the direct quotes of the interviewees, it can be said that their understanding of the family’s encounter with their disability is based on kindness, psychological measures, meeting needs, pity, excessive support, restrictions, Feeling powerless, denying disability, suppressing their needs and ignoring them. Also, the codes of verbal abuse, physical abuse, social rejection, social interaction, violation and lack of law, executive guarantee, recreation and entertainment, transportation challenges, job inequality and compliance are among the categories resulting from their perception and understanding of the society’s encounter with the disabled and It was a disability. In axial coding, the researcher refers to the data by asking questions about a category that generally specifies a kind of relationship and investigates incidents and events that confirm or deny the questions. According to the results of the central coding and the analysis obtained from the direct quotes of the interviewees, it can be said that their understanding of the family’s encounter with their disability was based on the codes of positive discrimination, negative discrimination, self-confidence and self-worth. Also, the codes of violence, social communication, laws, environmental facilities and social life are among their perception and understanding of the society’s encounter with disabled people. In short, the data analysis procedure that leads to the creation of a theoretical model; They include the way the family and society deal with the disabled, which explain the main phenomenon of disability.
The results obtained from the findings based on the interviewed disabled people’s experience of their families’ encounter with the phenomenon of disability and disabled people show that the greatest impact of family categories in this phenomenon is the excessive attention that families had towards disabled people and this issue causes It can make them feel discriminated against other family members. This discrimination had both positive and negative aspects, such as the efforts of families to meet the needs of disabled children, as well as attending the counseling and support sessions provided by the welfare organization, which caused a sense of discrimination and positiveness in These were the disabled and they were satisfied with this kind of exposure of their families. But at the same time, they considered pitiful behaviors and excessive support that caused them to be very attached and dependent on their families as negative consequences of their disability. Among these negative consequences, we can mention the negative attitudes of the people around them towards the phenomenon of disability and seeing them as incomplete and incapable, as well as the obstacles and strictures that were aggravated by gender and being disabled.
On the other hand, the family’s encounter with disability also brought some identity and psychological challenges, including encounters that make disabled people feel powerless and do not have the necessary self-esteem and self-confidence to do their jobs. Also, the attitude of others towards their weaknesses in doing personal and daily affairs reduces their self-esteem. On the opposite side, there were parents and families who tried to compensate for the extreme disability of disabled children and family members by denying disability. This work against disability is as annoying as discrimination and pity for disabled people, because they felt that they were being ignored due to the denial of their disability.
Among the other problems that the interviewees mentioned in the face of the family with disabilities was the effort of the family members to ignore and suppress their needs and requirements, things like their non-attendance and the lack of importance of their presence in mass ceremonies and programs, as well as ignoring it and The guilt they felt from the burden they imposed on their family made them feel worthless.
The results obtained from the findings based on the interviewed disabled people’s experience of the society’s encounter with the phenomenon of disability and the disabled show that the greatest impact of social categories in this phenomenon is the lack of necessary social support for the disabled; They stated that although there are laws related to the rights of the disabled and the employment of their three percent quota in the law, but these laws are not being followed as they should and perhaps do not have an executive guarantee; On the other hand, many of these laws are violated, or even in the places where they are observed, they are not fully and comprehensively taken into account.
Ethical considerations
Authors’ contributions
All authors contributed to the producting of the research.
Funding
The present study did not have any sponsor.
Conflict of interest
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
Research ethics
In this article, all rights relating to references are cited ethics and resources are carefully listed.