Exploring occupational balance in adults with personality disorder

Occupational balance is a popular concept in occupational science. It is derived from the concept 'occupation', which is at the base of the profession 'occupational therapy' and therefore studied in Occupational Science.

Occupational balance can be interpreted as the balance individuals experience in daily life activities. However it is not yet clear how occupational balance is experienced in adults with personality disorder.



Adults in mental health treatment (in partial hospitalisation) experienced transitions in their life. Therefore, they can provide rich information about the topic.



Therefore, the research question of this study is: 'How do adults with personality disorder, in partial hospitalisation at Mondriaan, experience occupational balance?'



Using qualitative research, from the hermeneutic-phenomenological viewpoint, the data will be collected by means of in-depth interviews. The participants are selected by theoretic sampling. A selection of 5 to 10 participants will be made, each of which will be interviewed 2 or 3 times with a maximum of 1 hour per interview.



Before starting the interviews, the participants are required to give informed consent.



The data collection, transcription and analysis will be performed using a cyclic interative procedure. The initial data-collection is followed by data-transcription and data-analysis. On basis of the initial analysis results, a second data collection, transcription and analysis will take place. These steps will be repeated, until saturation of data is occured.



The reliability and validity of the research is increased by describing the process in detail, and using peer-debriefing and member-checking.

2 or 3 interviews for each participant (max. 1 hour per interview).

In-depth interviews. The central theme of the in-depth interviews are the experiences of participants in occupational balance in daily life. Each in-depth interview starts with the question: What do you normally do in a day? The participant determines the direction for the remainder of the interview. The researcher ensures flexibility by asking in more detail about the participant's answers. Topics that will be used: daily activities, occupational patterns, balance in occupations, environment, personality disorder