The Meaning of Childhood Disability Among Immigrant and Refugee Parents: Integrative Review and Lifeworld Approach

Parental perspectives on childhood disability shape the healthcare experiences and well-being of children and families. Understanding the perspectives of immigrant and refugee parents is essential for providing culturally safe and responsive services, supports, interventions, and plans of care. This integrative review examined how immigrant and refugee parents living in Canada and the United States understand and make meaning of their children's disabilities. A systematic search of seven databases identified 23 studies (22 qualitative, 1 mixed methods) published between 2001 and 2024. Data were analyzed thematically using a lifeworld fractions framework, encompassing selfhood, society, embodiment, temporality, spatiality, project, discourse, and moodedness. Parents drew on multiple cultural and religious frameworks—often blending biomedical, traditional, and spiritual explanations—to interpret their children's disabilities and guide caregiving. Across studies, parents described challenges with language, stigma, and navigating fragmented service systems, yet also expressed resilience, faith, and hope for their children's futures. A lifeworld approach highlights how meanings of disability are embedded in everyday experiences and cultural contexts. This perspective offers healthcare and education professionals a holistic framework for assessment and support, encouraging attention to parents’ lived realities, values, and cultural worldviews to promote equity and trust in care relationships.