Sociocultural Construction of Disability Identity Among College Students With Psychiatric Disabilities: A Phenomenological Investigation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Authoring Dis/ability: Meaning-Making, Lived Experience, and Discourse

Abstract

Research has found that the endorsement of disability identity is associated with students’ academic success. However, little is known about how students form their disability identity within the context of college. This paper presents an interpretive phenomenological investigation of the lived experiences and meaning-making processes of five college students with psychiatric disabilities. An analysis guided by a sociocultural perspective on identity highlighted the contextualized nature of identity formation and how students with psychiatric disabilities make meaning of their selves and their experiences within the context of college. The findings contribute to the dearth of literature on the lived experiences and identity formation of college students with psychiatric disabilities with important implications for theory, research, and educational practice.

Author

• Amber M O'Shea, Temple University