Table III.

An exemplar of the processes of data analysis

Step 1: Reading the text to obtain a sense of the narrative Step 2: Extracting the meaning units Step 3: The meaning units were examined to gain a sense of the experiences and comprehensively understand them	Step 4: Meaning units were transformed into psychological language	Step 5: Specific subcategories were. related to general themes
Meaning unit	Psychological language	Subcategories	Themes
“My classmates stigmatized me by saying that diabetes is infectious. Their parents did not want them to play with me as they were afraid that something would go wrong with me. I did not know how to explain and could only put up with the bullying and discrimination.” (N14)	Disease stigmatization resulting in bullying	3.3 Negative labels	3. Perseverance: Encountering difficulties
“During high school, sometimes my relationship with my father was somewhat affected. My father did not understand my disease, and he would be very upset when hyperglycaemia or hypoglycaemia occurred. When I was unable to go to school, he would even think that I was finding excuses. My teachers were unable to understand that I would be very upset when I had hyperglycaemia or hypoglycaemia. Sometimes I would feel absent-minded and these people did not understand. This caused my relationship with my father to be irreversibly damaged and I did not feel like going to school.” (D11)	Others are unable to understand the feelings of suffering from the disease, resulting in estrangement	3.4 Interpersonal problems