A clear-cut division between mild and severe asthma attributable to uncontrollable contingencies
or bad luck (for example, those born with potentially fatal asthma), was not
always evidenced in the data. Rather, divisions were blurred with the interview becoming
a moral occasion where the narrators played the role of being responsible by presenting
themselves as able to determine their own fate. Such sentiments fit with definitions of
young people as ‘responsible beings’ in Meah et al.’s (2009) research on asthma management.