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Rodjan Sibal, Miriam College, PhilippinesAbstract
This study examines how Filipino adults have disrupted intergenerational poverty through their lived experiences using a qualitative narrative inquiry approach. Ten adults, aged 36–50, were purposively selected from urban and rural communities across the Philippines, representing diverse socioeconomic backgrounds from subsistence households to middle-class families. Participants were selected specifically for having achieved upward mobility despite intergenerational economic hardship. In-depth, semi-structured interviews explored how participants interpreted and navigated poverty across time, relationships, and places, shifting focus from economic metrics to relational and experiential dimensions. Anchored in Connelly and Clandinin’s (1990) three-dimensional narrative inquiry framework, findings are organized into four resonant threads, resilience, altruism, faith and formation, and tenacity, revealing recurring patterns across participants’ life stories. One participant, for example, described working multiple informal jobs to support siblings’ education while simultaneously caring for younger relatives, demonstrating resilience and altruism intertwined with faith and formation. Bowen Family Systems Theory was applied analytically to examine how family emotional processes, differentiation of self, and relational dynamics shaped their capacity for upward mobility. The findings highlight the relational and meaning-making aspects of poverty disruption and underscore the importance of culturally grounded, family-sensitive approaches. This study contributes to literature on poverty, family studies, and mental health by offering contextually rich insights relevant to counseling, education, and community-based interventions in the Philippine context. By centering participants’ narratives, the study illustrates how intergenerational legacies can be rewritten through perseverance, relational support, and intentional, informed life choices.
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