This study used narrative inquiry, based on reader-response theory, to investigate the experience of family caregiving in both physical and cognitive illness and disability. A sample of 36 family caregivers including 11 men and 9 African Americans completed semi-structured interviews, the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, and two structured instruments, the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and the Caregiver Reactions Assessment (CRA).
Narrative data were analyzed hermeneutically by integrating across-case and within-case comparisons. Thematic analysis was used for across-case comparisons; data were then recontextualized as individual stories using narrative tools of overreading including identification of repetitions, evasions, omissions, and inconsistencies (Poirier & Ayres, 1997).