Findings
A commonality among the teens was their willingness to articulate what it was like to grow up with CHD. The teens spoke openly of their life at school, at home, at work, at play, and as cardiology patients. Overall, these teens related to the concept referred to as quality of life, but they did so indirectly, and as such, more questions were required from the interviewer than simply “How would you rate your quality of life?” As is often the case with qualitative research, hearing the stories directly from the teens created the opportunity to understand how growing up with CHD had affected them both in terms of day-to-day life and quality-of-life issues.