| The current study looks at the experience of six people, now adults living in the Midwest, who grew up in families wherein a parent had Combat PTSD. This qualitative study combined the case approach with generic qualitative analysis to explore the primary research question, What is experience of growing up in a home in which a parent was diagnosed with combat related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) along with the secondary question, What are the perceived positive and negative aspects of that family experience? During analysis of the data collected, four themes emerged along with multiple sub-themes. The four themes revealed were that growing up was difficult, participants had difficulty with sibling relationships, participants had difficulty forming and maintaining relationships as adults, and as adult they found meaning from their experience. Given the many existential concepts that surfaced, these themes were then subjected to a theoretical analysis. Themes were analyzed in regard to their relevance in perceived positive and negative reflections of the experience using several existential theorists' constructs of existential loss and growth. Findings show that participants generally went through such a crisis during childhood and during young adulthood, but found meaning through forgiveness and engaging in purposeful work helping cope with the effects of PTSD. |
