Reflection on the Experiences of Disabled People: The Society as a Cause of Growth or Barrier

In recent years، based on evidence from several communities، positive psychology researchers have constructed a new conceptualization called “post-traumatic growth”. Based on the theory of symbolic interaction، members of the society، especially family members، play an important role in meaning making of events، quality of life after the accident and its consequences، and whether they experience growth or not. The aim of the present study was decoding experiences of successful disabled people of causing factors (facilitator) or barriers of growth by qualitative method. A qualitative design، based on the content analysis approach، was used to collect and analyze the experiences of 12 disabled people with national and international achievements. Participants were selected by purposeful and snowball sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. The data were analyzed based on the Granheim content analysis approach. The findings showed two main themes: 1) intelligent and noble family with 3 subcategories of initial acceptance and support، interaction with other groups and successful disabled people، and timely attraction and repulsion; 2) family as obstacle with 3 subcategories of pity and clumsy support، entertaining instead of being goal-oriented، and ignoring them. Attitudes and family functions have wanted and unwanted effects. They may act as facilitators or obstacles of growth. Understanding these factors based on experiences of disabled people could cause effective changes in the attitudes and beliefs of people.