Table 4 Qualitative content analysis of children’s and parents’ experiences post-program
From: An online, peer-mentored food allergy education program improves children’s and parents’ confidence
Theme | Meaning | Supporting Quotations | Frequency of common words |
|---|---|---|---|
Children | |||
Knowledge gives me more freedom | With greater knowledge, children feel more confident managing their food allergy to gain new experiences. | “What to do in a restaurant because I’ve never been to one” “[L]earning how to view my food allergy as something positive” | Auto-injector (n = 4) |
I made friends who understand my allergy | Being involved in the program gave children an opportunity to connect with others | “[M]eeting friends with allergies and hearing their stories” “Liked speaking to others with allergies.” | Speaking, hearing (n = 2) Meeting (n = 1) |
Parents | |||
By connecting with others, my child is more empowered to deal with their food allergy | Parents perceived that participation in the program increased their children’s food allergy competence and confidence | Competence “ Become more aware of her anaphylactic symptoms and importance of [EAI]” Confidence “To not be shy to speak up and ask questions” “confident communication skills and empathizing with others” | Aware (n = 3) Speak up, communicate, talk (n = 5) |
Tolerance for risk is not one size fits all | Parents appreciated that their children internalized that each family has a difference in risk tolerance | “That each family has a different threshold for what is acceptable and what is not acceptable as it relates to food allergies - i.e. dining out in our family vs dining out in someone else’s family might be at completely different comfort levels” | Threshold (n = 1) |
My child doesn’t feel so alone | Children learned that they had a support network of peers from across the country who shared similar food allergy-related lived experiences | “he has a support network who really “understands” how he feels and what he goes through every day” “My child learned that there is support for him from non-family members, and that other children share his experiences with allergy.” “Connecting her with other youth and people with food allergies so she doesn’t feel so alone in her food allergies and also being inspired by some of the things that others with food allergies have done to bring about awareness around food allergies.” “That he’s not alone - there are other people across the country that share his allergy concerns/experiences and that he can communicate with.” | Not alone (n = 10) Connect (n = 4) Support (n = 3) Kids, friends, children (n = 8) |