Honourable Sacrifice: A Visual Ethnography of the Family Lives of Korean Children with Autistic Siblings

Abstract

Literature on the siblings of disabled children has been dominated by western psychosocial theories that focus on stresses associated with being a ‘young carer’ or on children as active agents realising their ‘rights’ rather than as the victims of familial expectations. This article presents the findings of a visual ethnographic study exploring the lives of nine children living with an autistic sibling in South Korea (hereafter Korea). Despite personal challenges and family tensions, experiences of ‘being’ a sibling were strongly influenced by Confucian familist cultural values in which sacrifice plays a central role in achieving honourable and harmonious family life.

On My Own: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study of Mothers of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Taiwan

“…In this way, the marriage connection to the husband's family is not secure. As introduced earlier through a Korean example (Hwang & Charnley ), family shame is associated with having a disabled child. However, this is not necessarily the case in other settings.…”

“…Traditional Confucian culture places high value in having a male heir to continue the family line, and only male children are identified to inherit the right of ancestor worship. Looking at another Confucian society, Hwang & Charnley () note that there is shame associated with having a disabled child in Korean society. Despite this shame, they further note that care for the child remains firmly the responsibility of the family.…”

‘Miss mum’: mind and affective experience of Korean learners identified with autism spectrum and cognitive difficulties

“…As the main care providers, mothers frequently experience signs of public displeasure, and they struggle with a lack of informal support from family members and formal support from paid professionals (Cho, Singer, and Brenner 2000). In a society where Confucian values are still strong, some Korean siblings feel that they are expected to make life-time sacrifices for the sake of family harmony and the well-being of their autistic siblings (Hwang and Helen 2010). This paper explores the affective experience of learners identified with AS and intellectual difficulties within this particular social and cultural context.…”

“…Portrait of a friend: Minyoung, Woohyung's classmate, whom Woohyung would like to sit next to. (Hwang and Charnley 2010), children without AS are expected to make sacrifices for the well-being of their autistic siblings.…”

Home movies in participatory research: children as movie-makers

“…Recently, participant-produced videos have been developed and used to generate understanding of the wider context and to develop knowledge that, ideally, integrates the knowledge of researchers and the experiences of participants about themselves and their lives (e.g. Buchwald, Schantz-Laursen, & Delmar, 2009;Hwang & Charnely, 2010). Such approach is believed to overcome the rationalistic or logocentric tendencies of verbal approaches, and to enable children to express their views more directly, and with less interference from the researcher (Buckingham, 2009, p. 633).…”