A child's growing up with a parent who has multiple sclerosis: theories and experiences

Some theorists have provided insight into the phenomenon of disability, and others have provided conceptual notions of childhood. Still others have pr ovided theoretical expectations of what life is like for a child when mothe r or father has a disability or chronic illness. When children whose parent s have multiple sclerosis described their own experiences, much of what the orists had postulated was a poor fit with children's responses. This paper will explore differences between children's descriptions of life with a par ent who has MS, and the theoretical expectations of what their lives should be like according to previous literature. The paper concludes with the sug gestions that historical sociology, with its recognition of both agency and structure interacting over time, may be an effective way to understand any one's place on the disability/empowerment continuum, and may serve to illum inate the pathway of children with disabled parents in particular.