Exploring young women's understandings of the development of difficulties: a narrative biographical analysis.

This article describes a qualitative research study which used in-depth interviews to elicit young women's narratives about the meanings they hold regarding the important experiences in their lives, and their understandings of the development of difficulties that have led them to be in contact with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Five young women (aged 15-17 years) who were current users of CAMHS were interviewed. A narrative analysis was conducted on the data. The findings revealed how contact with services may have impacted on their developing sense of self during this important transitional period of their lives. The young women's stories differed in the extent to which they drew on themes of difficulties as indicators of illness or the result of difficult life events. Their sense-making appeared to be influenced by the relationships, contexts and discourses which they were exposed to and embedded within.