The shared experience of couples with a spinal cord injury: 'It happened to him, but it also happened to our relationship'

Abstract

While an increasing body of research recognises SCI (spinal cord injury) as a life-disrupting event significantly affecting both people with SCI and their partners, little attention has been given to the biographical disruption of SCI beyond the individual level. This article aims to explore couples' shared experiences of the biographical disruption of SCI within the context of couple relationships. Nine heterosexual couples took part in individual and joint interviews. Data analysis was informed by a descriptive phenomenological approach. The findings show that SCI brings about a major disruption to normative life expectations, relational roles and identities, intimacy and social relationships for couples. However, couples also demonstrate great efforts to negotiate this disruption based on their sense of couplehood. This article argues that the concept of biographical disruption can be usefully extended to better understand how couples manage and make sense of the experience of SCI within the context of couple relationships.