A Narrative Inquiry of Fathers Coping with Their Children’s Non-suicidal Self-injury

This study is a narrative inquiry that studies the meaning of experiences formed by fathers who have experience coping with their children’s non-suicidal self-injury through their life stories according to the flow of time and space. Based on the collected research data, the life experiences and meanings told by the research participants who have experience coping with their children’s non-suicidal self-injury were divided into <Becoming a Father> and <Fathers’ Coping>, and a total of 15 themes emerged. <Becoming a Father> included ‘Parents for me, I for my parents’, ‘I have inherited my identity as a parent’, ‘It was a hard life, but it was a duty that I had to do’, ‘I wanted to protect them, but I couldn’t’, ‘I lost my mother and myself’, and ‘I lost my opportunity as a father’. <Father’s Coping> included ‘Understanding self-injury, understanding children’, ‘Protecting them by sacrificing myself’, ‘Enduring with hope and expectation’, ‘Staying in control of my constantly fluctuating mind’, ‘Protecting my children by protecting myself’, ‘Sharing daily life’, ‘Resolving the triggering incident of self-injury’, ‘Protecting them by regaining my role as a father’, and ‘Learning about fatherhood’. This study is the first qualitative study that directly deals with cases of fathers who have experienced their children’s non-suicidal self-injury, and it can be used as data to expand in-depth qualitative research targeting fathers or parents who have experienced their children’s non-suicidal self-injury. In particular, the significance of this study lies in the discovery of the concept and role of fatherhood, such as instinctive protection, through the father’s response.