Boy Interrupted – Biographical disruption during the transition to adulthood. Issue 1 (30th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wedgwood, Nikki; Smith, Louisa; Hendl, Tereza; Shuttleworth, Russell
• Is Part Of: Sociology of health & illness. Volume 42:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 20
• Page End: 34
• Publication Date: 2019-07-30
• Subjects: biographical disruption -- masculinity -- ethnicity -- disability -- adolescence -- chronic health condition; Social medicine -- Periodicals; 301.5
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.12984
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-9889

Abstract

Abstract: Most studies on the gendered aspects of biographical disruption are predicated on adult experiences of chronic illness, often based on heterogeneous samples. This paper goes beyond typologies by analysing the life‐history case study of 'Sam', a 23‐year‐old Australian man raised in a refugee family, who developed a disabling chronic health condition at 15 years of age. The analysis illustrates how critical contextual factors like life‐phase, combine with powerful social structures like ethnicity and gender to shape Sam's experiences of, and responses to, biographical disruption. Even before the onset of any symptoms, Sam was railing against the marginal position he occupied in the Australian gender order as a young Asian man. With little guidance on how to adapt his biography to integrate his new differently functioning body, Sam's transition to adulthood stalls, and he becomes in effect, a boy interrupted.