Shaw Rachel L, Heath Gemma, Eatough Virginia, Thackeray Lisa
Psychology and Health Psychologist, Institute of Health & Neurodevelopment, College of Health & Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
Psychologist, School of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2025 Dec;20(1):2491925. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2025.2491925. Epub 2025 Apr 15.
Parents describe knowing instinctively when there is something wrong with their child, but they experience challenges convincing healthcare professionals of these concerns, which could prohibit timely escalation of care. Our purpose was to develop a phenomenological description of parental intuition from parents' lived experience.
We interviewed 12 parents remotely using a semi-structured schedule. Interviews were analysed using descriptive phenomenology.
We developed a phenomenological description of parental intuition with essential elements including: parental intuition as pre-reflective and pre-linguistic, as corporeal, affective, instinctive, hysteria, and phronesis. Parental intuition was expressed as prior to consciousness and felt within the body. It manifests as heightened arousal and emotion. Parental intuition was defined as ever-present, yet questionable, potentially gendered, requiring validation. Finally, parental intuition was defined as practical wisdom built up over years of exposure to one's child, enabling a reciprocal, unspoken and intimate bond.
Our work has demonstrated the significance of parental intuition in early detection of health deterioration. We discuss philosophical conceptualizations of knowledge and evidence relating to healthcare professionals' resistance to accept parental intuition as a valid source of knowledge in healthcare. We argue that parental intuition demands integration into practice guidance on paediatric shared decision-making.
父母表示，当孩子出现问题时，他们凭直觉就能察觉，但在让医疗保健专业人员相信这些担忧时却面临挑战，这可能会阻碍护理的及时升级。我们的目的是从父母的生活经历中对父母的直觉进行现象学描述。
我们使用半结构化时间表对12名父母进行了远程访谈。采用描述现象学对访谈进行分析。
我们对父母的直觉进行了现象学描述，其基本要素包括：父母的直觉是前反思性和前语言性的，是身体性的、情感性的、本能的、癔症性的和实践智慧性的。父母的直觉表现为先于意识且在身体内被感知。它表现为高度的觉醒和情绪。父母的直觉被定义为始终存在但值得怀疑的，可能存在性别差异，需要得到验证。最后，父母的直觉被定义为通过多年与自己孩子的接触积累起来的实践智慧，它能形成一种相互的、无需言语的亲密纽带。
我们的研究表明了父母的直觉在早期发现健康恶化方面的重要性。我们讨论了与医疗保健专业人员拒绝将父母的直觉视为医疗保健中有效知识来源相关的知识和证据的哲学概念。我们认为，父母的直觉需要纳入儿科共同决策的实践指南中。
