부산대학교 도서관

Aim and Background: To explore how children and adolescents perceive hope, maintain it, and use it in their lives during challenging times, specifically in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic presented a worldwide multifactorial impact on the mental and physical health of children and adolescents. Design and Methods: A descriptive phenomenological qualitative approach was used. Semi-structured audio-taped interviews were conducted with children (ages 8 to 12 years) and adolescents (ages 13 to 17 years) from varied settings following obtainment of written consent from parent(s) and assent from participants. Transcriptions of the audio-taped interviews were analyzed following Colaizzi's method of analysis. Lincoln and Guba's framework served as the guide for establishing trustworthiness of data and findings. Results: Forty-two interviews were conducted with 22 children and 20 adolescents at which point data saturation was obtained. Five themes representing the children's and adolescents' understanding and use of hope in their lives emerged from the data: internal light, connectedness, unique/one's own/other centered, wavering/challenged/rekindled, and a kaleidoscope of color and facets. These findings support the complex and multidimensional nature of hope in children and adolescents. Conclusions: Findings provide important data for nurses, other health care professionals, teachers, and parents to help them understand children's and adolescents' perception of hope, and how they maintained and used it within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Practice Implications: This study could potentially provide a basis upon which to develop hope-focused, developmentally informed interventions and programs to assist children and adolescents in cultivating, strengthening, and engaging their hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]