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1
Clower, Christen E. "Pregnancy Loss: Disenfranchised Grief and Other Psychological Reactions." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4340/.
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It is widely acknowledged in the literature that grief is most intense when it is experienced by parents whose children have died. However, as recently as 20 years ago, mothers whose children died at birth or before the pregnancy had reached full term were often dismissed as merely medical patients, and their psychological reactions were not considered or acknowledged by professionals, their friends, or their families. More recently fields such as psychology have recognized that women who have experienced pregnancy loss have complex psychological reactions to their loss. The present study examined the patterns of grief of women who have had a pregnancy end in spontaneous abortion or stillbirth and the ways in which these women gave meaning to their experiences. Participants were asked to complete several measures including the Perinatal Grief Scale (PGS), the Hogan Grief reaction Checklist (HGRC), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSS), and the Inventory of Social Support (ISS). The participants also wrote a narrative account of their loss experience. These narratives were content analyzed to delineate common themes. The findings indicated several important factors which may be useful in understanding and assisting in post-loss adjustment.
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Mighton, Jane Diane. "The relationship of perceived maternal conflict to grief intensity in a genetically indicated abortion." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28793.
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The incidence of congenital anomalies or potential congenital anomalies of fetuses is two to three percent. Most women who have a positive diagnosis of a congenital anomaly choose to terminate the pregnancy. A review of the literature identifies conflict preabortion and grief postabortion as key variables for women terminating pregnancies for genetic indications. The purpose of this study was to study the degree of conflict in the decision-making process preabortion and the intensity of grief six weeks postabortion and to determine if a relationship exists between the conflict and grief variables.
This was a descriptive, correlational study which used summary statistics to analyze the data. Women responded to a questionnaire six weeks postabortion about conflict experienced pretermination and current grief experienced. The sample included nine women who aborted in the second trimester of pregnancy following either ultrasound, chorionic villi sampling, or alpha-fetoprotein analysis of the fetus.
The findings indicated that the women experienced conflict while deciding whether or not to abort the fetus and that at six weeks posttermination the intensity of grief experienced was still high. A scatter plot revealed a curvilinear relationship showing grief plateauing and then decreasing as the conflict scores rose. Recommendations were that objective counselling in the decision-making period prior to the termination be provided, and grief counselling should continue longer than six weeks posttermination for those who need counselling.Applied Science, Faculty of
Nursing, School of
Graduate
3
Scheepers, Lucas Johannes. ""Giving voice" to the bereaved : family grief and resilience after a child has died." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021096.
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This study investigated family grief and resilience following a child’s death. Representing 23 families, 35 bereaved parents completed biographical questionnaires, the Family Hardiness Index, and the Family Attachment and Changeability Index 8. Significant positive correlations were found between family hardiness and family adaptation, and between parents’ age and family hardiness. Using grounded theory, interviews allowed for the formulation of categories including grief, continuing bonds, external support, religion, and family hardiness. The study reveals the need for exploring unique experiences of families bereaved by children’s deaths and identifies family hardiness as a potential resilience factor for this population
4
McKegney, Sherrie. "Silenced suffering : the disenfranchised grief of birthmothers compulsorily separated from their children." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=81253.
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Few efforts have been made to understand the subjective experiences of birthparents involved in the child welfare system, especially of those who have had their parental rights permanently removed. The research undertaken seeks an initial investigation of this neglected issue, providing accounts of four birthmothers' experiences of having one or more of their children involuntarily and permanently removed from their care as a result of child neglect. Implicit in this research is the assumption that these mothers do indeed suffer tremendous grief over the loss of their children, regardless of child welfare agencies' assessments of their parenting capacities. Furthermore, the research critically evaluates how child welfare practice and policy might serve to exacerbate incumbent issues of loss, ultimately disenfranchising this already isolated and stigmatized population. Therefore, this qualitative study endeavours to assist not only child protection workers, but also the greater community in better understanding what it is like to be a "child welfare parent" who has had her parental rights terminated, and to be aware of the existing imbalance of power between child welfare agencies and the clientele they serve. The study ultimately aims to help ensure that human dignity and genuine respect are not lost in the work of child protection.
5
Shahbaz, Amy Renee. "Spiritual experience: The relationship with the grief process." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2002. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2118.
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There were four major purposes of this study: (1) to evaluate the level of grief experience by bereaved individuals who attend either a grief support group or grief psycho-educational group in the Inland Empire, (2) to evaluate the level of spirtuality experienced by bereaved individuals who attend either a grief support or grief psycho-educational group in the Inland Empire, (3) to correlate the level of grief reactions with the level of spiritual experience within bereaved individuals, and (4) to describe demongraphic and grief/spiritual-related factors that may influence a bereaved individual's spiritual experience and grief process.
6
Dill, Sandra, and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Education. "What is grief and what can it teach us?" Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 1999, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/107.
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While a growing body of grief research focuses on how death affects the lives and the menatl well-being of survivors, death continues to be a mystery and the ultimate human crisis. Grief is now emerging as a concept of increasing significance for health care professionals and it is influencing the care doctors and nurses provide for dying patients and their families. A narrative inquiry format supports this phenomenological study of death and dying from the dual perspectives of the author's professional death experience as a nurse and her personal grief experiences as a daughter. Following the death experience the researcher's elderly father, the author examined grief and considered the grieving process form a phonomenological perspective which extends the scope of the stages of grief (Kubler-Ross, 1969) that are the most familiar to health care professionals. The narrative inquiry emphasizes the interrelatedness of various aspects associated with grief, including knowledge, advocacy, autonomy, support, and spirituality. The study articulates the connections between these aspects on professional and personal levels. The author also discusses trends that are influencing the increasing need for greater understanding of the care of the dying and the ability of the family and health care professionals to respond. Although the family retains an important role in end-of-life-care, in the decades ahead some of their responsiblities may shift to a more formal involvement that will influence the grieving process of the survivors. Whithin the phemonological framework of the researcher's death and dying experience, the author presents information, options, and coping strategies for those involved in such experiences.xxi, 182 leaves ; 29 cm.
7
Tsui, Ka-yee Yenny, and 徐嘉怡. "The dimensions of grief among Chinese in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31450416.
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8
Stevenson, Sue Louise Mahan. "The sense of meaning and purpose of hospice family members during the grief process." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/184790.
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This study was designed to assess the process of meaning loss for family members who cared for their terminally ill loved ones during the grief process as well as determine factors that might be related to loss of meaning. The Purpose in Life Test (PIL) was used as the dependent measure. The independent variables consisted of age, education level, relationship to patient, gender, ethnicity, whether counseling was received, types of counseling received, and time between diagnosis, death and the present. The data were gathered on 87 caregivers who were participating in the St. Mary's Hospice program in Tucson, Arizona. All caregivers were over age 18 and between three and thirteen months past the death of their loved one. The data analyzed in four stages beginning with the development of descriptive statistics. During the second stage a correlation matrix was constructed and explored. A multiple regression was performed during the third stage to assess which of the independent variables could explain any variance obtained with the dependent measure. In the last stage a factor analysis was done and compared with a factor structure from previous research with the PIL Test. Nine hypotheses were tested producing the following results: Meaning in life tended to be higher for those less close in relationship to the patient such as nieces, nephews, and in-laws. There was no significant difference between a caregiver being a spouse, child, sibling or parent of the deceased loved one and meaning in life. There was no significant difference in age, education level, gender, ethnicity, whether counseling was received, types of counseling received and time between diagnosis, death and the present and meaning in life. The factor analysis revealed a five factor solution. It was concluded that the PIL Test taps two factors that can be labeled Purpose in Life and Contentedness With Life. The overall conclusion of the study was that caregivers in the sample possess a unique and similar sense of meaning in life that may be due to a sharing a common experience. There may also be some unifying factor about those choosing to enter a Hospice program that may attract a homogeneous group of people.
9
Bell, Kerry Macfarlane. "Walking with the bereaved : a phenomenological investigation of the experience of the companion in grief." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28963.
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This research study sought to respond to the question; what is the meaning of the experience of the companion to a grieving person? This was accomplished through using a phenomenological method of research. The researcher was guided by dramatic form in creating a common story of the experience and its structural meanings.
This study included three co-researchers, who were selected on the basis that they had each been a companion to a mother who had grieved the loss of her child through death. The co-researchers were Interviewed and asked to give detailed descriptions of their experience, which were taperecorded and transcribed, and the transcripts or protocols were analyzed by the researcher. A Phenomenological protocol analysis was used to extract meaning units and common themes from the three protocols. The themes were woven into an integrated narrative description, which was condensed into the essential structure or meaning of the experience. At each stage of the analysis, the researcher and co-researchers cooperated so that all the results were validated by the final interview.
The results of the study included a list of twenty-four themes, a narrative description of the experience being investigated, and the essential structure, which presented the meaning of the experience as concisely as possible. It was posited in the discussion that the study had particular implications for practice.Education, Faculty of
Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of
Graduate
10
Sennett, Margot Jane. "A phenomenological explication of the experience of having one's bereavement denied by others." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004527.
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Bereavement is the natural human reaction to the death of a significant other. Often the experience of the bereaved person is denied expression in the social context. The aim of this thesis is to examine what it means to have one's bereavement denied by others. The relevant literature was reviewed. Theories which have both reflected and influenced the way the bereaved are perceived in contemporary western society have been discussed. The historical background to changing attitudes towards death was described and the reasons for the "denial of death" were examined . The narcissistic personality in particular was considered . Using the Phenomenological method, a question was formulated to elicit the lived structure of the experience being researched. This was asked of thirteen voluntary subjects who had experienced the denial of their bereavement by others. Five written answers (protocols) were chosen and explicated. The lived structure of the experience can be described as "a profound and fundamental distancing of the world of the bereaved from the world of others." The implications of this for the bereaved person, bereavement support groups, health care professionals, future research and society as a whole were then critically discussed .
11
Foster, Ryan D. "Effects of a Near-Death Experience Learning Module on Grief." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30455/.
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The researcher examined the effectiveness of a near-death experience (NDE) learning module on reducing distressing aspects and enhancing a growth aspect of grief among bereaved adults. Participants were 22 females and 2 males; 2 identified as African American, 3 as Asian, 2 as Latina/o, and 17 as White; aged 20 to 71 years with mean age 35.3 years. In this experimental design, the researcher randomly assigned 12 participants to the experimental group and 12 participants to the waitlist no treatment control group. Participants in the experimental group received the NDE learning module intervention, which consisted of 3 sessions over consecutive weeks. Six research questions were explored. A two-factor repeated measures analysis of variance was performed on five dependent variables to determine if the two groups performed differently across time according to the pretest and posttest results of the Despair, Panic Behavior, Personal Growth, Detachment, and Disorganization subscales of the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (HGRC). A one-way analysis of covariance was performed on one dependent variable to determine if the groups were statistically different according to the posttest results of the Blame and Anger subscale of the HGRC. Additionally, univariate eta squared was hand calculated to determine practical significance. Findings indicated that bereaved adults who participated in the NDE learning module showed small effect size for interaction on Panic Behavior (η2 = .05) and Personal Growth (η2 = .05), large effect size for interaction on Detachment (η2 = .15), large effect size for treatment type on Blame and Anger (η2 = .15), and negligible effect size for interaction on Despair (η2 < .01) and Disorganization (η2 < .01). Although no statistically significant results were found for any of the dependent variables (p > .05), effect size findings indicated modest to substantial benefits of the NDE learning module intervention for bereaved adults in the form of decreased panic behavior, blame and anger, and detachment, and increased personal growth. Implications for further research beyond this initial investigation are discussed.
12
Hunt, Sonya. "Bereaved parents : central issues of bereavement." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/640.
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Väisänen, L. (Leena). "Family grief and recovery process when a baby dies:a qualitative study of family grief and healing processes after fetal or baby loss." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 1999. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514254295.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe the family grief and recovery process through a qualitative phenomenological family therapy approach.The study included stories of 22 families and one focus group. Of the losses 14, were perinatal, 6 Sudden Infant Death Syndromes (SIDS) and 2 neonatal deaths. The analysed text was divided into 21 categories, which represent different aspects of the meaning systems of the families.
All the families had traumatic symptoms in the beginning, and some mothers suffered from persistent posttraumatic symptoms for several months. Children processed their experiences in grief play and tried to restore their parents back into their roles. Grief was shared in extended families, especially religious families, where acute grief soon generated new meanings.The recovery process starts immediately after the loss, manifesting as thoughts of coping. Grief, trauma and recovery appear intertwined in the stories. Family grief is a many-faceted physical, psychological, spiritual and social process. It is paradoxical, and restorying and retelling are therefore important as a healing process.
The main finding of this study is the intensive way the parents initially need to reprocess their attachment to the psychological remains of their baby in order to recover. Grieving thus involves deep attachment rather than detachment, Some families have phantom babies who continue to live psychologically and almost physically or little angels who comfort and escort the family. The parents have invested so much primeval energy in the baby who is no longer alive that they tend to re-create her/him in their minds psychologically or spiritually.
Professional helpers still have too little knowledge of crisis intervention. The loss of a baby is an exceptional type of normal grief and the parents therefore have difficulties in getting the support they need. Family debriefing and follow-up are necessary.
14
McCall, Marsha Joan. "Perceived causal attributions and their relationship to grief intensity in early miscarriage." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27720.
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Grief and causal attribution are two of the most commonly observed reactions to early miscarriage, yet little is known about these reactions or whether a relationship exists between them. This exploratory and descriptive correlational study examined the maternal grief intensities, the causal attributions, and the relationship between them in a convenience sample of 15 women who spontaneously aborted at 16 weeks' or less gestation. Women responded to both a written questionnaire and a semi-structured Interview at 6 to 10 weeks post-miscarriage. Their responses Indicated both current and retrospective reactions to their miscarriages. Responses were analysed using nonparametric statistics and content analysis.
Maternal grief Intensities were found to vary widely at the time of the miscarriage, but all decreased significantly 6 to 10 weeks later. All women reacted to their miscarriage with attribution-seeking behaviors. The explanations most women formed were comprised of more than one causal attribution. Attributions were observed to have four distinct characteristics. Causal attributions were found to be either philosophical or physically oriented; to be organic, non-specific or maternal/self-blaming In origin; to be either dominant or non-dominant, and/or to refer to causalities immediate or prior to the physical event.
At the time of the miscarriage a positive correlation between grief Intensity and maternal/self-blaming attributions and between grief Intensity and philosophical attributions was found. These relationships were not observed 6 to 10 weeks later. A positive correlation was found between grief intensity and attributions to maternal emotions at both the time of the miscarriage and 6 to 10 weeks later.Applied Science, Faculty of
Nursing, School of
Graduate
15
Sanders, Sharon Lee. "Does Postformal Thinking Facilitate Recovery From Grief and Promote Well-Being During Bereavement In Widows?" CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2001. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2295.
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Widows were assessed on four measures relating to recovery from bereavement: postformal thinking (measured as dialectical thinking), recovery from grief (measured as past feelings and present feelings), well-being (measured by three subscales: autonomy, environmental mastery, and positive relations with others), and age at time of participation. Eighty participants completed and returned questionnaires. It was hypothesized that age of the participant and the development of postformal thinking would predict higher scores on recovery from grief and well-being. Analysis was performed using a Structural Equation Model with a comparative fit index (CFI) of .98. Results showed that age and postformal thinking did not predict recovery from grief or higher well-being scores. In addition no correlation was found between later age and postformal thinking, although there was a correlation between scores on recovery from grief and scores on well-being.
16
Henderson, John Mark. "The Relationship Between Adjustment And Bereavement-Related Distress: A Longitudinal Study." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3250/.
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The current study assessed 125 conjugally bereaved persons using multiple self-report measures as indicators of personal adjustment and bereavement distress across three times of testing (initial, 6-month, and 3-year follow-up). Cross-lagged panel analyses were conducted to examine the causal relationships between adjustment and bereavement distress indicators and overall factors. Exploratory factor analyses indicate measures of adjustment load on a single Adjustment factor and measures of bereavement distress load on a single Grief factor. Considering results using composite scores for each variable, adjustment was significantly more predictive of bereavement distress than bereavement distress was predictive of adjustment for both Time 1 to Time 3 and Time 2 to Time 3. Adjustment issues measured by indicators such as the UCLA, POMS, HSC, BDI, and RSES significantly influenced the extent of grief symptoms as measure by the BEQ and the severity of scope of grief symptoms as assessed by the IOLQ.
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Webb-Ferebee, Kelly. "Expressive Arts Therapy with Bereaved Families." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2001. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2861/.
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Most current grief programs support the children and/or parents of bereaved families rather than the family as a whole. This exploratory study was a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the use of expressive arts therapy with bereaved families during a weekend camp experience and a series of followup sessions. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of using expressive arts activities in improving the functioning of the bereaved family as a whole as well as individual family members. Participants included eight families who lost a child to a chronic illness between 2 to 36 months months prior to the onset of the study. Children ranged in age from 3 to15, and parents ranged in age from 26 to 66, for a total of 27 participants. The Child Life Department at Children's Medical Center of Dallas, a division of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas recruited the families. Participants received flyers and invitational letters and registered through the mail. Families attended a weekend camp where they experienced a wide variety of expressive arts activities in a combination of group formats: multi-family groups, parents' group, developmental age groups for children, total childrens' group, individual family group, mothers' group, and fathers' group. The research design was a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental control group design, but a control group could not be established. Therefore, one-tailed t-tests were used to compare participant functioning between the beginning and end of the study. Instruments used in this study included the Family Environment Scale, the Behavior Assessment System for Children the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. In addition, the researcher used qualitative analysis to assess contents of family members' and counseling staff's journals, expressive arts products, and family members' evaluations. Results of this exploratory study indicated some improvements in children's, parents' and total family functioning. Expressive arts therapy shows promise in effecting constructive change in bereaved families and is deserving of further research.
18
Tsang, Wai-hung Wallace, and 曾偉洪. "Attitudes towards 'life' and 'death and dying' in Chinese bereaved widows: implications for bereavement work inHong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1996. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31250294.
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Kellas, Marlen Joyce, and Lynette Christine Wheeler. "Bereavement support groups for elementary school-aged children: The impact on grief related problematic behaviors." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1997. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1538.
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Ener, Liz D. "A Canonical Correlational Analysis Exploring Characteristics of Children Presenting to Counseling for Grief and Loss." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc804937/.
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To date, researchers who have explored the complexity of childhood bereavement have utilized unstandardized assessment instruments and/or have independently evaluated specific constructs rather than factoring in the dimensionality of loss. The purpose of this study was to use parents' completion of established instruments--the Child Behavior Checklist and the Parenting Stress Index--to examine the multivariate shared relationship between characteristics of bereaved children referred for counseling--their ages, genders, ethnicities, types of loss, and life stressors--and their behavioral manifestations as well as the relationship between these characteristics and levels of parent-child relational stress. Utilizing archival clinical files, I examined these characteristics from bereaved children (N = 98) whose parents sought counseling services from two university-based counseling clinics. The sample consisted of 67 boys and 31 girls between the ages 3 and 11 years old (M = 6.28). The majority of participants (67%, n = 66) identified as Caucasian, 10% (n = 10) as African American, 10% (n = 10) as Hispanic/Latino, 6% as Bi-racial (n = 6), 4% as Native American (n = 4), and 2% as Asian (n = 2). A canonical correlational analyses (CCA) was conducted to examine relationship between characteristics of children and their subsequent behavioral manifestations. The full model was found to be statistically significant using the Wilks’s λ = .611 criterion, F(25, 328.41) = 1.862, p = .008. The R2 type effect size was .389, which indicates the full model explains about 39% of the variance shared between the two variable sets. A second CCA was conducted to explore the relationship between characteristics of bereaved children and levels of parent-child relational stress. The full model was found statistically to be significant using the Wilks’s λ = .790 criterion, F(10, 154) = 1.926, p = .045. The R2 type effect size was .210, which indicates the full model explains about 21% of the variance shared between the two variable sets. Overall, correlational findings from this study provided insight into bereaved children’s manifestations of loss and levels of parent-child relational stress as contingent upon specific characteristics. Specifically, results indicated a strong relationship between age and bereaved children’s behavioral manifestations. This finding reinforced the importance for clinicians to understand developmental implications when working with bereaved children. Furthermore, caregivers who reported minimal overall external stressors also reported less parent-child relational interference. This finding further emphasizes the importance for caregivers to maintain utmost stability for bereaved children.
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Schoka, Elaine. "The Relationship Between the Grief Process and the Family System: The Role of Affect, Communication, and Cohesion." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279027/.
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Sixty-six people who had recently experienced the death of a parent or a spouse completed a questionnaire packet to assess their current grief symptomatology and some characteristics of the relationships within their family. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire 4-5 weeks after the death and then again six months later. The present study compared two competing models to explain whether the grief process affects the characteristics of relationships within the family system or that family characteristics affect the experienced grief symptoms.
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Garzouzie, Gabrielle. "The psychological experiences of grieving for adolescents recently bereaved of a parent." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6525.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Parental bereavement has generated interest internationally, and yet very few bereavement studies have been conducted within South Africa, even though the prevalence of South African adolescents experiencing parental bereavement is on the increase. The attachment theory explains why the loss of a parental figure during adolescence could have a long lasting negative influence on adolescents’ psychological development. The present study aimed to explore the psychological experience of bereavement for 66 adolescents who recently lost either a parent or a significant caregiver who played a parental role for the bereaved adolescent. By means of a cross-sectional quantitative design the following variables were examined: depression (using the Beck Depression Inventory–Second Edition; BDI-II), anxiety (using the Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI), coping (using the Coping Strategy Indicator; CSI), attachment (using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment; IPPA) and social support (using the Social Support Appraisal; SSA). The results showed that the strongest significant positive correlations were between depression and anxiety, followed by positive correlations between attachment to the remaining mother figure and problem-solving coping. Furthermore, the results showed that the strongest significant negative correlations were between: depression and problem-solving coping, followed by the correlation between attachment to the remaining mother figure and peers and depression. Support from significant attachment figures in the bereaved adolescent's life was found to promote healthy adjustment to the significant loss by lowering depression and strengthening perceived social support for the bereaved adolescent. For the South African population, peer run support group interventions, based in schools or community youth groups, have been identified as best suited to promote resilience for adolescents during the bereavement process. The interventions would bring together bereaved adolescents, creating a support group for the adolescent to draw on during their bereavement.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In teenstelling met die internasionale gemeenskap geniet studies rakende ouerlike verlies in Suid- Afrika relatief min belangstelling en alhoewel gevalle van adolessente wat ouerlike verlies ondervind in Suid-Afrika vermeerder, word daar baie min sulke studies plaaslik onderneem. Die teorie van gehegtheid verklaar hoekom die verlies van ‘n ouer-figuur gedurende adolessensie langtermyn psigologiese newe-effekte kan meebring. Hierdie studie beoog om die psigologiese ondervindinge van 66 adolessente , wat onlangs ‘n ouer of voog moes afstaan, te bestudeer. Deur gebruik te maak van ‘n kwantitatiewe kruispeiling is die volgende veranderlikes bestudeer: depressie (deur gebruik te maak van die “Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition; BDI-II”), angs (deur gebruik te maak van die “Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI”), aangewassenheid (deur gebruik te maak van die “Coping Strategy Indicator; CSI”), gehegtheid (deur gebruik te maak van die “Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment; IPPA”) en sosiale ondersteuning (deur gebruik te maak van die “Social Support Appraisal; SSA”). Die resultate toon dat die sterkste betekenisvolle positiewe korrelasies tussen angs en depressie bestaan, gevolg deur positiewe korrelasies tussen gehegtheid tot ‘n oorblywende moeder-figuur en aangewassenheid. Verder toon die resultate dat die sterkste betekenisvolle negatiewe korrelasies tussen depressie en probleem-oplossings opgewassenheid gevind kan word, gevolg deur gehegtheid aan ‘n oorblywende moeder-figuur en tydgenote en depressie. Ondersteuning van figure waarteen die adolessent aangeheg voel bewys om gesonde aanpassing tot die verlies te bewerkstellig deur die aanslag van depressie te bestry en begrip van sosiale ondersteuning te bevorder. In die Suid-Afrikaanse omgewing is gevind dat ingrypende ondersteuningsgroepe, wat bestuur word deur tydgenote van die adolessent, gebaseer in skole of gemeenskap jeug groepe, die beste vaar daarin om adolessente opgewasse te maak teen die verlies van ‘n ouer of voog gedurende die treur proses. Hierdie ingrypende ondersteuning groepeer treurende adolessente saam en bevorder so die vorming van ondersteuningsgroepe waar treurende adolessente mekaar kan bemoedig.
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Acheson, Kerry. "The phenomenolgoical experience of posttraumatic growth in the context of a traumatic bereavement." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004456.
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The present study involves an exploration of the phenomenological expenence of posttraumatic growth in the context of a traumatic bereavement. An idiographic case study of a student who had witnessed her mother's death twelve years previously was conducted. Semi-structured interviews elicited data which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IP A). Posttraumatic growth was found to have developed with regards to self-perception, relationships, and also in a broader spiritual and existential domain. The findings of this study shed light on the extant posttraumatic growth literature. In particular, findings were discussed in relation to the posttraumatic growth model as proposed by Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006). As posttraumatic growth is a relatively young concept, further research is needed in order to understand the meaning of reported growth more fully. While posttraumatic growth has been investigated in the context of bereavement, future research should distinguish more clearly between growth following traumatic and non-traumatic bereavement. Posttraumatic growth has received minimal empirical attention in South Africa, and therefore exploration of this area is suggested in the future.KMBT_363
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Seretlo-Rangata, Mmakwena Linda. "The psychological meaning of mourning rituals in Botlokwa Community, Limpopo Province." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2032.
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Thesis ((M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2017.The study explored the psychological meaning of mourning rituals in Botlokwa community, Limpopo Province. The study focused on identifying and describing the types of mourning rituals observed and performed by the participants after the loss of a loved one. Furthermore the study explored the subjective meaning the participants attach to the mourning rituals so as to identify and articulate the psychological themes embedded in the mourning rituals. A total of ten participants (male = 5; females = 5; aged between 40 and 60) were selected using the purposive sampling method. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis method was used to analyse the data. The three major themes that emerged during data analysis were; a) The types of mourning rituals observed and performed after the death of a loved one; b) the subjective meaning that the bereaved attach to the mourning rituals and c) the psychological meaning embedded in the mourning rituals observed and performed after the death of a loved one. The findings of the study suggest that the mourning rituals performed by the Batlokwa people have significant psychological meanings. These include assisting the bereaved to cope with the death of a loved one, strengthening the bereaved and ensuring that the bereaved are healed and accept the death of a loved one. The study results further shows the different subjective meanings that the bereaved attach to the mourning rituals performed. Furthermore the findings of the study suggest that the participants perform mourning rituals in order to prevent them from misfortunes, illnesses, bad luck and to remove what is perceived as a “dark cloud” hanging over them after the death of a loved one. The findings further suggest that the bereaved benefit psychologically from performing the mourning rituals. One of the benefits is having to let go of the deceased with the knowledge that their loved ones’ soul is resting in peace. The study is concluded by, among others, recommending that psychologists familiarise themselves with different cultural groups and different ways of grieving and mourning within different cultures in order to better understand patients’ different mourning processes.
NIHSS scholarship
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White, Marjorie Anne. "An Integrated Approach to Theories of Loss and Adaptation to Disability." PDXScholar, 1996. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5143.
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Many theories have been proposed that attempt to explain response and adaptation to loss. However, no one theory has been shown to be universally applicable to all individuals suffering a loss. This paper presents an overview of many of these theories, paying special attention to the relationship between the theories of loss and adaptation to disability. The theories include the psychoanalytic model of loss, stage models of adaptation to loss, the value change theory of acceptance of loss, chronic sorrow, the cognitive adaptation theory, the stress and coping model, developmental theory, and the existential perspective on loss and grief. The possible influence that factors such as age, gender, culture and variables specific to disability may have on loss are also discussed. A new conceptualization of loss is introduced that tries to integrate many of the key ideas of these theories. This integrated approach takes into account the unique situation of each person, emphasizing the interaction between environmental and personal factors in adapting to loss. The model contends that due to the uniqueness of the individual, to the many possible combinations of environmental and psychological factors, and to the nature of the loss itself, any one or combination of loss theories could be in effect for any single loss. The intent of this thesis is to encourage the reader to become familiar with different perspectives on the subject of loss and grief to help select the method that best fits the individual situation of the person seeking counseling.
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Sacks, William Andrew. "Healthcare providers' experience of chronic grief in a pediatric subacute facility." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2001. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2034.
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The purpose of this study was: (1) to evaluate the level of grief experienced by healthcare providers in a pediatric subacute facility, (2) to compare the levels of grief between different groups of healthcare providers (Certified Nurses' Aides, Licensed Nurses, and Respiratory Care Practitioners), and (3) to describe the personality/demographic factors that influence a healthcare provider's ability to cope effectively with compound grief.
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Burch, Kaitlyn. "Dance Lessons." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/256.
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August Diamond is left lost after the sudden death of her father. The stories in Dance Lessons explore the themes of loss and grief, retreat and return, and finding your true self. The collection is a novel in stories, each story exposing another layer of August's past, her family, and their complicated relationships.
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Captari, Laura E. "Pathways to Prolonged Grief and Posttraumatic Growth: Examining the Roles of Attachment, Identity Distress, and Shattered Assumptions." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1248525/.
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The sudden or violent death of a loved one (e.g., suicide, homicide, accident, etc.) poses unique challenges for the bereaved. Research has found such losses to be associated with higher levels of chronic psychological distress, now termed Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder in the DSM-5 and Prolonged Grief Disorder in the forthcoming ICD-11. The present study, developed through the lens of Multidimensional Grief Theory (MGT; Kaplow et al., 2013), explored underlying mechanisms and risk and protective factors for both prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth. With a mixed college and community sample of 374 traumatically bereaved adults, results of a path analysis suggest that insecure attachment strategies play a significant role in prolonged grief symptoms through the mediators of identity distress and shattered assumptions. Faced with the traumatic loss of a loved one, the ability and desire to effectively access relationships facilitating intentional processing that promotes cognitive reorganization is predicated on the bereaved's internal working model of attachment. Specifically, attachment anxiety in relation to close others and God, and attachment avoidance in relation to close others, were indirectly associated with prolonged grief. However, attachment avoidance in relation to God was negatively associated with both prolonged grief and posttraumatic growth, and there was no evidence for mediation. One explanation for this could be that individuals endorsing divine attachment avoidance are less likely to make negative religious attributions about the death, which have been associated with chronic psychological distress, but are also less likely to be able to utilize the sacred as a context for growth. By considering traumatically bereaved individuals' internal working model of attachment, level of identity distress, and potentially shattered assumptions, our model accounted for each of MGT's three domains of distress thought to impact post-lost adjustment. That these domains were both inter-related and associated with differential outcomes speaks to the complex nuances of each grief journey and the importance of attending to more than global levels of distress. These results inform the assessment and treatment of individuals bereaved through sudden or violent means.
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Steinfeld, Alice 1953. "Anticipatory grief: A needs assessment of family members and significant others when a loved one has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291932.
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This survey examined anticipatory grief as a process of grieving that occurs when a loved-one has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The inevitability of loss creates certain needs and feelings for the survivor. The study examined these needs, the extent to which these needs were satisfied, and the feelings. Finally, the relationship between dissatisfaction of important needs and certain feelings was observed. Findings show that certain needs, such as the need to gain knowledge about illness and to feel emotional support from family members rate as extremely important by the greatest number of respondents. These needs were not, however, rated as highly satisfied. It was also found that feelings such as anger, loneliness, and frustration were rated as occurring frequently when prognosis of death was within a year. Lastly, there was found to be a positive relationship between dissatisfaction of needs and these feelings.
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Edwards, Mary Ellen Elizabeth. "Protective-restoring to maintain self integrity : a grounded theory of the human experience of dog relinquishment." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2012. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/501.
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Dog relinquishment or ‘getting rid of the dog’ is common practice in Australia and other countries where dogs are kept as pets. Each year thousands of dogs are relinquished for a variety of reasons. While losing a pet through death can be as devastating for some people as the death of a loved human, little is known about the human impact of losing a dog through relinquishment. This qualitative study sought to explore the experience of dog relinquishment from the perspectives of a Western Australian sample of 21 relinquishers, 10 adults who had experienced dog relinquishment in childhood and 15 animal welfare workers. Data, collected via semistructured interviews, were transcribed verbatim and analysed in accord with Straussian grounded theory methodology, an inductive, interpretative methodology, utilising the constant comparative method. The substantive grounded theory of ‘protective-restoring to maintain self integrity in the face of a self disturbing experience’ that was generated from an interpretative analysis of the data, describes the human experience of dog relinquishment as one of psychological, social and moral conflicts that challenged participants self and social image. The theory proposes that those who experience dog relinquishment personally or professionally experience a disturbed self integrity (i.e., a sense of cognitive and emotional unease). Five conditions, identified as threats to self integrity, were found to contribute to participants’ sense of unease, namely the culture of relinquishment, a crisis of conscience, a fear of losing face, losing faith and losing the dog. Variation in participants’ experience was accounted for by individual and social conditions that influenced the type, intensity, frequency and duration of their unease. Participants’ experience of dog relinquishment was characterised by one or more of three types of unease, namely, cognitive dissonance, psychological stress and grief, which were dealt with through a process identified as protective-restoring. The continuous four phase process of protective-restoring involved recognition, identification, assessment and counteraction of threats to self integrity. Its aim was to protect participants from further threats and to restore their self integrity. Six types of strategies were identified that participants employed during the counteracting phase of the protective-restoring process, namely, self enhancing, blaming, impact reducing, emotional management, avoiding and blocking. Strategies employed were not always successful and in some circumstances increased rather than reduced the unease of participants. Further the strategies sometimes contributed to the unease of others. These findings indicate that the human experience of dog relinquishment is multidimensional and complex. Further, given its potential to detrimentally impact the mental health and wellbeing of large numbers of adults and children, dog relinquishment is an experience that should not be trivialised or ignored. As well as contributing to the human-animal interaction body of knowledge, the substantive theory that has emerged from this research could be used to inform the development of a screening tool to identify those who are likely to be negatively impacted by dog relinquishment. Further, the theory could also be used to inform the development of interventions that could be used to assist adults and children to deal with the negative impact of dog relinquishment.
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Pessoa, Gabriella Costa. "A percepção de adultos jovens sobre a perda de um irmão na infância: um estudo exploratório." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2017. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/20117.
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Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq
Among all happenings capable of altering one’s family dynamics, the death is one to require adaptive answers, especially in regard of the ensuing grief. Bereavement occurs whenever there was a bond with the deceased person. Its process entails a variety of subjective aspects, unique to each loss. For children, the understanding of death differs from the adult experience, according to the child’s developmental stage. A loss occurred during childhood will likely be revisited and resignified throughout a lifetime, regarded that the bond between siblings bears potential for intense and diverse life experiences. When one loses a sibling, also loses the possibility of a future shared with someone from the same generation, who partakes the same family origins. In addition, a child who loses a sibling has grieving parents that may not be able to provide the needed atmosphere for a healthy development. The exploratory research focuses on long-term sibling bereavement, aiming to understand better how the loss of a sibling during childhood reflects into adulthood. We used the qualitative method with discourse analysis applied to a single meeting interview with two young adults of 18-35 years old who lost a 0-12-years-old brother or sister during childhood. The grief process was understood from the categories: understanding of death in childhood; participation in related events; grief reactions; find refuge; parental grief; communication; support; disenfranchised grief; having another child; Recurrence; fantasy; curiosity; ambiguity; presumed world; religion; personal growth; continuing bond; therapy. The results indicate that the loss of a brother or sister during childhood can produce changes in different aspects of the emotional development of the life of the bereaved and that talking about it is beneficial
Entre os acontecimentos que podem alterar a dinâmica de uma família, a morte é um evento que requer respostas adaptativas. O luto ocorre quando há vínculo com a pessoa perdida. Seu processo engloba uma diversidade de aspectos subjetivos próprios a cada perda. A compreensão da morte por crianças difere da compreensão de um adulto, conforme seu nível de desenvolvimento. Uma perda ocorrida na infância será revisitada e ressignificada ao longo da vida, uma vez que a relação fraterna traz consigo potencial para vivências intensas e variadas. Ao perder um irmão, perde-se a possibilidade de um futuro junto a alguém da mesma geração, com quem se compartilham as origens familiares. Uma criança que perde um irmão possui pais também enlutados, que podem não conseguir proporcionar o ambiente necessário para seu desenvolvimento saudável. O estudo exploratório teve como foco o luto de irmãos a longo termo, buscando compreender a percepção do adulto jovem sobre a perda do seu irmão. Utilizou-se o método qualitativo com análise de discurso aplicada à entrevista em um único encontro realizada com dois adultos jovens de 18-35 anos participantes da pesquisa que perderam irmão(ã) entre 0-12 anos na infância. O processo de luto foi compreendido a partir das categorias: compreensão da morte na infância; participação nos eventos relacionados; reações ao luto; encontrar refúgio; luto dos pais; comunicação; suporte; luto não reconhecido; ter outro filho; recorrência; fantasia; curiosidade; ambiguidade; mundo presumido; religião; crescimento pessoal; vínculo contínuo; terapia. Os resultados apontam que a perda de um irmão na infância pode produzir transformações em diferentes aspectos do desenvolvimento emocional da vida do enlutado e que versar sobre o luto é benéfico
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Chow, Yin-man Amy, and 周燕雯. "The development of a practice model for working with the bereaved relatives of cancer patients: the singlesystem study of the "walking through the road of sorrow"." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1995. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31977881.
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De, Vries Chrissie. "Narratives of a family living with HIV/AIDS and a researcher's alternative story /." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1798.
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Malenkovich, Ilona Yurivna. "Grief Lives Online: An Empirical Study of Kübler-Ross' Categories of Bereavement on MySpace Profiles." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1441.
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With the widespread use of the Internet, grief has been extended in its representation. Specifically, social networking sites, like MySpace, have turned grief presentation from private expressions into public displays of mourning. This study utilizes the theoretical foundations of the grief presentation process of Kübler-Ross' (1969) five categories of bereavement (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) to determine whether the grief presentation process is present in an online setting. In this study, the researcher conducted an empirical investigation of 4,931 comments, resulting in 22,263 bereavement themes outlined by Kübler-Ross, which were condensed into 2,288 time-point comparisons posted to 140 MySpace profiles of users who have passed-on. Results revealed noteworthy practices surrounding grief presentation on the MySpace profiles of the deceased. Specifically, bereaved commenters post a significantly greater number of bereavement narratives in the first three months post-mortem as opposed to months four through six. Additionally, race and sex of the deceased, as well as sex of the bereaved, did not prove to be mitigating factors in online grief presentation. Moreover, across observed races and sexes, the bereavement category of acceptance was found most often, followed by depression, denial, anger, and bargaining. Findings suggest that post-mortem commenting behavior blends current memorializing practices while also extending the space for communication and grief presentation. Additional implications for understanding grief communication on MySpace and future directions for research conclude this study.
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Hildebrand, Paula. "Primary school children's experiences in their loss of a parent." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/446.
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This study aims to discover the meaning that primary school children place on the loss of a parent and the impact it has on the children’s lives. As it is an emotive topic, and because of the difficulties of interviewing children, qualitative techniques of research data collection are considered the most appropriate. The study will explore, discover and describe children’s personal experiences of loss in a phenomenological and contextual manner. The sample in the study will be selected according to non-probability and purposive sampling techniques. Because children are being interviewed, the researcher will ethically approach gatekeepers for permission, and gain their informed consent. Data will be collected using semi-structured interviews, in which the researcher will interact with the interviewees in a natural setting. Data analysis will be done according to Tesch’s eight steps for analysing qualitative research data (Creswell, 1994:155). Once this process has been completed, the data will be verified against the four criteria that Guba (in Krefting, 1991:214-222) developed for testing the trustworthiness of qualitative research findings. The results of the study, as well as conclusions and recommendations drawn from the data, will be disseminated by means of a written report.
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Merrill, Mark Reed. "Where We Belong: A Memoir." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/393.
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Where We Belong is more than a memoir. It is a love story about the untimely death of the oldest of five daughters born to a prominent New Haven, Connecticut family. It is also a tale of hubris, rage and frustration, a Greek tragedy about a man's life as re-examined through the lens of the two weeks his wife spent dying, a tale in which chronic illness and good intentions ensure the death of a loving wife, artist and mother. The journey on which her husband takes the reader explores a health care system oblivious to her plight, her family's unwitting complicity and a 12-step mythology that unfolds while he, her six weeping children and her aging mother helplessly look on. The author endures an agony that dwarfs incentives to lie, learning that people lie out of fear, and genuine grief supplants fear with the stark reality of what we fear most: death. Where We Belong gives voice to the internal dialogue the author encounters when reexamining not just memories, but the accoutrements of memory, as well. It is a voice that addresses his own grandiosity, sentimentalism and self-pity in the face of his wife's death, in addition to those details, circumstances and impressions that speak to the arrogance he brought to the task of being all he thought she and her six children needed him to be. He concludes the task was well beyond him, a realization evoked by the gut wrenching decision to literally "pull the plug" on this heartbreaking tale of reconstituted hope and great promise reduced to rubble by chronic illness, alcoholism, drug addiction and death. Born is the lesson that when we grieve, we are free to be ourselves. When we are free to be ourselves, we are free to love again.
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Van, Heerden Gary Paul. "Holding on or letting go?: the resolution of grief in relation to two Xhosa rituals in South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016055.
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The dominant emphasis in Western models of bereavement is on the breaking of bonds with the deceased in order for healing to occur. Failure to let go often leads to a diagnosis of 'pathological grief'. This paper challenges the assumption that death invariably means that the bonds with the deceased have to be severed. Situating Western models of bereavement in a modernist context not only challenges the 'truth' claims of these models, but also facilitates a deconstruction of the elements that contribute to the emphasis on letting go. In contrast to these theories, two Xhosa rituals (umkhapho and umbuyiso) that seek to sustain the bond with the deceased person will be examined. Such rituals demonstrate that it is possible to both maintain the bond and for the bereaved person to move on with their lives. Despite different contexts, it will be argued that these Xhosa bereavement rituals have a contribution to make to Western models of bereavement and some implications for therapy will be explored.
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Guedes, Izabela Aparecida de Almeida. "A espiritualidade frente ao processo de final de vida de um ente querido: reflexões sobre os significados atribuídos pelo familiar." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2018. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/21676.
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Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq
Receiving the diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease represents a crisis for patients and their families, affecting different life domains and promoting a re-signification of belief systems that are shaken by the threat to the continuity of life. Palliative care emerged as an alternative to the traditional curative model of health, aiming at relieving physical pain and giving comfort to emotional, social and spiritual suffering. This new approach ratified the inclusion of spirituality in the concept of health established by the World Health Organization, indicating the need to consider the spiritual dimension in view of the proximity of death. As a new paradigm of caring, palliative care also aims at encompassing anticipatory mourning experienced by the care unit during patient’s illness, as well as monitoring the mourning family after its relative’s death. The present study utilized a qualitative methodology in order to apprehend the meaning of spirituality assigned by the family member whose a loved one was in a end-of-life process. A collective case study was carried, with the participation of six family members attending a hospice in palliative care, and the investigation was done through field diary and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed through content analysis according to Bardin (2011) and the following thematic categories were found: expressions of anticipatory mourning, perceptions on/meanings of spirituality, meanings of mourning, protective factors, risk factors. The results suggest that spirituality is a support for those who are on the verge of losing a loved one and should not be neglected by health professionals. It has proved to be an important protection factor for the experience of mourning processes
O recebimento do diagnóstico de uma doença potencialmente fatal representa uma crise para pacientes e familiares, afetando diferentes áreas que compõem o viver e impulsionando a uma ressignificação dos sistemas de crenças, abalados frente à ameaça da continuidade da vida. Os cuidados paliativos surgiram como uma alternativa ao modelo curativo de saúde, propondo o alívio das dores físicas, emocional, social e espiritual. Essa visão ratificou a inclusão da espiritualidade no conceito de saúde estabelecido pela Organização Mundial de Saúde, demonstrando a necessidade da abordagem da dimensão espiritual frente à proximidade da morte. Apresentando-se como um novo paradigma para o cuidar, visa também o acolhimento do luto antecipatório, vivenciado pela unidade de cuidados durante um processo de adoecimento, bem como o acompanhamento do enlutado após a ocorrência da morte. No desenvolvimento do presente estudo foi utilizado o método qualitativo, a fim de conhecer o significado atribuído pelo familiar à espiritualidade frente ao processo de final de vida de um ente querido. Foi realizado um estudo de caso coletivo, com a participação de seis familiares atendidos em uma hospedaria, tendo sido a investigação feita por meio de diário de campo e entrevista semiestruturada. O instrumento utilizado para analisar os dados colhidos foi a análise de conteúdo segundo Bardin (2011), tendo sido encontradas as categorias temáticas: expressões do luto antecipatório, percepções/significados sobre a espiritualidade, significados sobre o luto, fatores de proteção, fatores de risco. Os resultados evidenciam que a espiritualidade é um suporte para aqueles que estão na iminência de perder uma pessoa amada, não devendo ser negligenciada pelos profissionais de saúde. Ela se mostrou como um importante fator de proteção para a vivência dos processos de luto
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Legg, Susan C. "The developmental implications of childhood bereavement." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/487.
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Sani, Livia. "Consequences and psychological support after a perinatal loss : an eighteen-month mixed longitudinal study of twenty-nine bereaved parents." Thesis, Strasbourg, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019STRAG041.
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Cette recherche vise à évaluer le risque de développement d’un trouble du deuil compliqué et l’apport d’un soutien psychologique (personnel, de groupe et sur internet) à la suite d’une perte périnatale. 29 parents français ont été rencontrés au total cinq fois : une première fois, puis 3, 6, 12 et 18 mois après la première réunion. Une méthodologie mixte a été utilisée, s'appuyant sur des entretiens qualitatifs (évalués avec l'Interpretative Phenomanological Analysis et le programme Alceste) et à l’aide de deux questionnaires (l'Inventory of Complicated Grief et le General Health Questionnaire-28).21 femmes (72%) et 8 hommes (28%) sont les parents rencontrés avec une moyenne d’âge de 31,4 ans. Le délai maximal entre le décès de l’enfant et la première réunion était d’environ 10 mois, le délai minimum était quant à lui de 22 jours. 44% des décès étaient dus à des problèmes médicaux et 35% à une interruption médicale de grossesse. Seulement 22% des enfants étaient mort-nés (maximum 96 jours) et 79% étaient décédés in utero.Notre recherche a confirmé que la perte périnatale est un événement difficile et risqué pour les parents. Ce n’est que 18 mois après la perte de l’enfant que les parents ont rejoint le niveau du deuil non compliqué. La participation à des groupes de parole s’est révélée utile, tandis que les groupes sur internet peuvent mener au développement de troubles psychopathologiques. Le rôle social et les contraintes culturelles liées au genre influencent la façon dont s’exprime le chagrin des parents. Au niveau du soutien émotionnel, la proximité et l’aide du partenaire et de la famille sont très importantes. Se souvenir et commémorer l'enfant malgré le temps qui passe et les grossesses ultérieures est fondamental pour aller de l’avantThis research aims to evaluate the risk of complicated grief disorder (CG) and the contribution of psychological support (professional, or personal and group, and online) following a perinatal loss. 29 bereaved French parents were met for a total of five meetings : the first one, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after the first meeting. A mixed methodology was used, drawing on qualitative interviews (evaluated through the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and the Alceste programm) and two questionnaires (Inventory of Complicated Grief and General Health Questionnaire 28).The parents were 21 women (72%) and 8 men (28%), with a mean age of 31.4 years old. The maximum time between the child’s death and the first meeting is about 10 months, while the minimum is 22 days. 44% of deaths occurred due to medical problems and 35% to a Late Termination of Pregnancy. Only 22% of children lived (up to a maximum of 96 days) and 79% died in utero. Our research confirmed that perinatal loss is a difficult and risky event. Only more than 18 months a half after the loss, the parents reached the uncomplicated grief threshold. Participation in support groups has proved useful while online groups can influence the development of psychopathological disorders. The social role and cultural impositions of gender influence the expression of grief. Regarding the emotional support, the closeness and help of the partner and family are very important. Remembering and commemorating the child despite the passing of time and subsequent pregnancies are fundamental to move forward
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Glickman, Kim Lisa. "Complicated Grief Treatment: What Makes It Work?" Thesis, 2013. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8Z89BSB.
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This dissertation is an exploration of the putative mediators of complicated grief treatment (CGT) in an effort to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which the treatment exerts its effects. This three-paper dissertation utilizes data from an NIMH-funded randomized controlled trial of CGT (Shear et al., 2005), which showed that CGT is more effective than Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) in reducing symptoms of complicated grief (CG). The first paper examines a broad range of ancillary outcomes including symptoms of anxiety, depression, complicated grief and sleep disturbance due to bad dreams. Antidepressant use is examined as a possible moderator since half the sample was taking antidepressants and those taking antidepressants had a marginally better response rate in CGT than those not taking them (59% vs. 42% in CGT and 40% vs. 19% in IPT). CGT was more effective than IPT in reducing cognitive symptoms of anxiety, depression as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), somatic symptoms of depression, guilt/self-blame, negative thoughts about the future, avoidance and poor sleep due to bad dreams. The difference in treatment effect on the HRSD for CGT over IPT was more pronounced for participants not taking antidepressants where CGT reduced depression but IPT did not. Paper two examines possible mediators specific to the model of CGT including: guilt/self-blame specific to the death or deceased; negative thoughts about the future; avoidance of reminders of the loss; anxiety and depression (intense negative emotions). Antidepressants are also examined as a potential moderator to explore whether their use affects the mediating role of the identified variables. All of these variables emerged as either full or partial mediators of CGT. Antidepressant use had no effect on the mediating role of these variables. Paper three examines whether alliance (measured at week 4) predicts subsequent change in grief symptoms (controlling for early symptom change) and if so, whether it accounts for the difference in treatment effect between CGT and IPT (mediation). Working alliance emerged as a mediator of CGT, accounting for 28% of the treatment effect found between CGT/IPT and grief symptoms. Discussion sections for each paper summarize study findings, limitations and implications for future research.
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Stolove, Catherine Anne. "Linguistic Context Sensitivity as a Predictor of Prolonged Grief Symptoms." Thesis, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-az2p-5611.
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Following the loss of a loved one, grief is a near-universal experience. While most grieving individuals are able to cope effectively and return to baseline functioning over time, some develop persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD). This dissertation aims to elucidate the ways in which cognitive and emotional processing go awry in the context of PCBD. More specifically, it examines the relationship between the types of language that bereaved individuals use and their trajectories of adjustment in the first year following a loss. In particular, this dissertation examines context sensitivity in word use. Context sensitivity describes the degree to which an individual is attuned to the particular demands of a given task or situation. In the present study, linguistic context-sensitivity was measured by analyzing the use of words pertaining to certain categories within specific contexts (e.g., participants were asked to discuss a recent positive event, and the use of positive emotion words within their responses was analyzed). Results indicated that, among those individuals who display high levels of grief immediately following the loss of their spouse, the use of context-sensitive language predicted a favorable course of adjustment in the first year of bereavement with low levels of grief at one- year post-loss. Conversely, the use of context insensitive language predicted high levels of grief at one-year post-loss. These findings indicate that context sensitivity may instrumental in the development of PCBD and, as such, may help predict an individual’s course of adjustment immediately following a significant loss. A better understanding of these early signs of PCBD may greatly assist in the timely detection of the disorder so that intervention may be most effective. Furthermore, this field of inquiry also has the potential to deeply inform treatment modalities designed to help individuals cope in the wake of bereavement.
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Jackson, Monica Ann. "A study of children and grief : living through bereavement." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/2200.
Full textAbstract:
The high levels of HIV/AIDS and violent crime in South Africa mean that millions of children are being forced, and will continue to be forced, to deal with the death of a parent/primary caregiver in their early and middle childhood years. Acknowledging that does not lessen the apprehension and uneasiness which lingers in formal and informal discussions of children, death, dying and grief, nor does it ameliorate the fact that childhood bereavement is becoming a normative childhood experience in South Africa. It is vital, therefore, to understand what are South African children's experiences of bereavement and grief, and to explore what impacts are likely to be exerted on their development. Children do not grieve in the same way; and children's grief is influenced by factors such as environment, unique experiences, developmental level, personality, age and gender. Family, too, is important because it is still the primary institution of society, and it influences substantially how children understand death, bereavement and grief. The school, too, has an impact on childhood grief. The majority of school-going children in South Africa are in primary school grades. Attending primary school corresponds with (most often) middle childhood, which is a critically important developmental stage. The experience of bereavement and grief during middle childhood is challenging precisely because it occurs in such a sensitive emotionally, cognitively and socially developmental period. Childhood grief experienced in that period can have long-term consequences. Important, too, is the fact that school-going children will, more than for younger children, not only experience grief privately but will grieve in public settings such as the school setting. This study, therefore, was concerned with exploring and gaining insight into the dynamics of bereavement and grief as experienced by children, who were in middle childhood, and enrolled in the primary school system. An exploratory design was chosen to explore the issue. A purposive sample was drawn from the school's list of scholars, and included 25 children attending Grades Five to Seven (Senior Primary Phase) at a co-educational, English-medium, state school. Data were collected both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative primary data collection, involving in-depth interviews, was chosen because it allowed the researcher to explore the issue from the children's own perspectives. Each child was interviewed by the researcher over two to three sessions. Quantitative secondary data collection, involving key demographic and academic information extracted from the school's records, was included, and that helped triangulate and contextualise the data collected in the interviews. This study found that children in middle childhood do experience a diverse range of grief responses to the death of their parents/primary caregivers in the school environment, among other places, and some of those grief responses were challenging. Although respondents experienced different and confusing emotions; and although some had had their grief acknowledged by significant others, while others had not, all were able to engage in honest, clear discussions about death and grief. Respondents reported experiencing a range of secondary losses associated with the initial loss on their daily lives, and that was especially so for girl children. Respondents did know how to access support services but had not done so. The respondents also expressed a need to be encouraged to remember and memorialize their dead parent/primary caregiver. The study found, too, that the more prepared and supported the bereaved child was prior to that death, the better s/he coped with the event. Understanding children's bereavement can help those individuals and organisations, which are responsible for children's optimal development, provide children with the necessary support to prevent the child's bereavement and grief from becoming a lasting trauma.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.
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Jerga, Angelique Marie. "Love and loss : attachment and the prediction of prolonged grief." Phd thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150727.
Full textAbstract:
As part of attachment theory, Bowlby (1980) proposed an individual difference model of coping with bereavement and described how insecure attachment orientations would be linked to two disordered variants of grieving: chronic mourning and the prolonged absence of conscious grieving (also called absent, delayed, inhibited, or suppressed grief). While empirical research has supported the association between an anxious attachment orientation and grief symptoms, studies have failed to support an association between avoidant attachment and symptoms. In fact, some studies on loss have found a negative association between avoidant attachment and symptoms. In a series of three studies the current research sought to further investigate Bowlby's individual difference model by examining insecure attachment patterns and responses to loss. The first study examined attachment and responses to death and non-death loss and included 57 people who reported a death loss and 119 people who reported a non-death loss. Contrary to previous research, avoidant attachment was a significant predictor of grief and trauma symptoms for death loss, while attachment anxiety was a significant predictor of symptoms for non-death loss. This study was the first published study to show a positive association between avoidant attachment and grief symptoms. It was unclear, however, which aspects of avoidant attachment were contributing to the positive association with symptoms, as avoidant and anxious attachment were highly correlated in the regression model (r = .634). The second study sought to clarify these findings using a different measure of attachment and improve upon the research by separately assessing general and relationship-specific attachment patterns (with the deceased) and measuring complicated or prolonged grief symptoms rather than only normative grief responses.
In the second study 368 people reported a significant death loss, with most losses being the loss of a grandparent or parent. General avoidant attachment was positively associated with prolonged grief symptoms, while relationship-specific avoidant attachment was negatively associated with symptoms. The negative association between specific avoidant attachment and symptoms was explained by the strength of the attachment relationship with the deceased, or lack thereof. General and relationship-specific attachment anxiety were associated with prolonged grief symptoms, with a stronger association for relationship-specific attachment anxiety. The third study extended the research further by specifically examining adjustment to parental loss, or loss of a primary attachment figure. The death loss of a mother or father during childhood or young adulthood was reported by 71 people. General avoidant attachment was positively associated with prolonged grief symptoms while relationship-specific avoidant attachment was negatively associated with symptoms. Relationship-specific attachment anxiety was also associated with prolonged grief symptoms in this study, but no association was found for general attachment anxiety. Normative grief symptoms were also assessed in the second and third studies and interestingly, general avoidant attachment was not associated with these more typical symptoms. The results from these studies support the distinction between general and relationship-specific attachment insecurities and between normative and prolonged grief responses. The theoretical and clinical implications of this research are presented in the final chapter, as well as recommendations for future research.
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Sawyer, Jacob Scott. "Grieving Without God: Comparing Posttraumatic Growth, Complicated Grief, and Psychological Distress in Believers and Atheists During Bereavement." Thesis, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8280M19.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this dissertation was to examine coping and outcomes of grief for atheist individuals during bereavement. The landscape of grief research has significantly changed since the days of Freud, and widely accepted stage theory models of grief have not held up to empirical review (Wortman & Silver, 1989). Emerging research examines factors that may lead to positive changes as a result of loss or trauma, known as posttraumatic growth. However, atheist individuals continue to be an understudied group in the psychological and bereavement literature, while people with religious beliefs continue to receive the most focus (Brewster, Robinson, Sandil, Esposito, & Geiger, 2014; D’Andrea & Sprenger, 2007). This study explored how cognitive (e.g., assumptions about the world), existential (e.g., meaning), and behavioral (active and emotional) coping methods are associated with posttraumatic growth, complicated grief, and psychological distress in a believer and atheist sample after the death of a close friend or family member. Specifically, posttraumatic growth, complicated grief, and psychological distress were regressed onto the three types of coping (cognitive, existential, and behavioral) using a hierarchical regression analysis. The first analysis controlled for demographic variables and the second analysis consisted of matched groups on demographic variables that were found to be associated with grief outcomes in prior research (e.g., Bonanno et al., 2008; Bonanno, Galea, Bucciarelli, & Vlahov, 2007). Exploratory bivariate correlations were conducted to assess interrelations between the variables of interest. Additionally, MANOVA was used to assess differences in demographic variables between the believer and atheist sample. Significant cognitive, existential, and behavioral coping methods were found to be associated with posttraumatic growth, complicated grief, and psychological distress. Furthermore, the endorsement of a belief in God(s) was significantly and positively associated with posttraumatic growth, but also significantly and positively associated with complicated grief and psychological distress. Results from this study can be used to identify appropriate clinical strategies for counselors working with grieving atheists, and will deepen the breadth of literature on bereavement and coping within diverse populations. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
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Malgaroli, Matteo. "The Centrality of Sadness: Networks of Depression, Grief, and Trauma Symptoms in a Spousally Bereaved Sample." Thesis, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7916/D87M1RFQ.
Full textAbstract:
SIGNIFICANCE: Complicated and persistent grief reactions afflict 10% of bereaved individuals, and are associated with severe disruptions of functioning. These maladaptive patterns were tentatively included in the DSM-5 as Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD). The condition has been studied using network analysis, showing how symptoms activate and reinforce each other into psychopathological configurations. This approach offers unique insights to inform clinical practice and define psychopathology. Despite these strengths, previous studies were based on self-report information from a single archival dataset. To overcome these limitations, we collected clinical data from a community sample of newly bereaved individuals who suffered loss of a spouse (N=305). Symptoms of PCBD from semi-structured clinical interviews were analyzed via a network approach.
METHODS: Ising model Networks of PCBD were generated from symptoms diagnosed at 3 months, 14 months, and 25 months after the loss. Comorbidities with DSM-5 symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder, and PTSD were also explored. The role of risk factors was also assessed. Lastly, longitudinal VAR networks were generated combining the three temporal observations.
RESULTS: Symptoms from the Social/Identity PCBD cluster were central in the network configurations. Yearning and Emotional Pain appeared less strongly interconnected compared to previous research. Meaninglessness activated a cascade of further PCBD symptoms over time. Loneliness, difficulties trusting others and meaninglessness bridged with comorbid depressive and trauma symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS: Symptoms related to loss of identity and meaninglessness were identified as salient candidates for targeted interventions. The network approach showed potential for an improved understanding of psychopathological distress reactions following potentially traumatic events.
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Nghonyama, Musa Asnath. "What are the effects of teacher- facilitated group work on bereaved adolescents?" Diss., 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1353.
Full textAbstract:
South African society is exposed to the reality of violence and crime, and at the same time HIV / AIDS is claiming the lives of many parents. Consequently schools throughout the country have an increasing number of bereaved adolescents among their learners.
The effects of parental death during the adolescent years make severe inroads into the cognitive, psychosocial and moral development of adolescents. These detrimental effects of parental death motivated the researcher to investigate the effects of teacher- facilitated group work on bereaved adolescents.
A mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research method was used to investigate the said effects. Accordingly a questionnaire was designed using the Likert rating scale. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used as quantitative data collection tools for this study. The data from the BDI and BAI were tabulated.
Structured interviews, games, personal documents and focus group interviews were used as qualitative data collection tools. The data were analysed and reduced and prominent themes emerging from data sources were identified and discussed.
While bereavement is a very traumatic event for the adolescent, the study findings illustrate that teacher-facilitated group work provides members with various benefits which help them learn more about themselves and improve their interpersonal relationships, thus providing a supportive climate in which they could deal collaboratively with their bereavement. The findings also point out that group work provides the bereaved adolescents with a place where they are understood, where they can talk about their thoughts and feelings without being judged.Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)
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Engelbrecht, Stephanie. "Terapeutiese begeleiding van die jong kind in kindersorg wie se ouers op 'n onnatuurlike wyse gesterf het." Diss., 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/2471.
Full textAbstract:
Text in AfrikaansIn today's society our children are being incredibly exposed to trauma and death. Parents want to protect their children against hardship and loss and it is evident that todays society is characterized by social pathology. In view of the above the researcher studied literature extensively to investigate the affect of the phenomenon of death and trauma in the life of the young child. In order to establish the availability of therapy programs for the young child in childcare whose parents died in an unnatural way. It was evident that the present South African society is indeed characterized by conflict, homicide and violence. The death of a parent is a traumatic experience for the young child (aged two to seven years). VVhen death occurs suddenly it was found that the grief process is more complex. Through the process of literature study and empirical investigation it seems that many young children, who lost their parents through unnatural death, are placed in childcare institutions. In this study it was established that the fact that children were placed in childcare did not always imply that therapeutic intervention took place. Limited financial support and social services contributed to insufficient therapeutical intervention. Furthermore it was found that the investigated childcare institutions couldn't provide the researcher with therapeutic programmes. This study therefore indicates that there is a need for the development of therapeutic programmes for the young child in childcare. whose parents died in an unnatural way.
In die hedendaagse samelewing blyk dit dat kinders al hoe meer aan dood en trauma blootgestel word. Hoewel ouers graag hulle kinders wil beskerm teen hartseer en verlies, blyk dit dat vandag se samelewing gekenmerk word deur 'n vorm van sosiale patologie. In die lig van voorafgaande, het die navorser literatuurstudie onderneem om die teenwoordigheid en die fenomeen van dood en trauma in die lewe van die jong kind te ondersoek. 'n Verdere literatuurstudie is ook onderneem om die rou ervaring van die jong kind te ondersoek. Die navorser wou ook in hierdie studie vasstel of daar terapeutiese begeleiding aan die jong kind in kindersorg, wie se ouers op 'n onnatuurlike wyse gesterf het, beskikbaar is. Daar is in die studie gevind dat die huidige Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing inderdaad gekenmerk word deur konflik, moord en misdaad. Die afsterwe van 'n ouer is 'n traumatiese ondervinding vir die jong kind (twee tot sewe jaar). Wanneer die dood skielik en onverwags intree, is bevind dat die rouproses gekompliseerd is. Deur die proses van literatuurstudie en empiriese ondersoek blyk dit dat verskeie jong kinders wie se ouers op 'n onnatuurlike wyse gesterf het, in kindersorginstansies geplaas word. Daar is in hierdie studie bewys dat hoewel die kind in kindersorginstansies geplaas word, terapeutiese begeleiding nie altyd plaasvind nie. Hierdie gebrekkige terapeutiese begeleiding word toegeskryf aan die feit dat nie voldoende finansiele ondersteuning en maatskaplike dienste is nie. Daar is verder gevind dat kindersorginstansies, wat aan die studie deelgeneem het, nie oor traumaterapie programme vir terapeutiese begeleiding beskik nie. Hierdie studie toon dus dat daar 'n behoefte is vir die ontwikkeling van terapeutiese programme vir die jong kind in kindersorg wie se ouers op 'n onnatuurlike wyse gesterf het.
Educational studies
M. Ed. (Voorligting)
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Chan, Angeline Michell. "Meaning-making in response to the traumatic loss of a child." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/12602.
Full textAbstract:
Recent research supports the theoretical premise that healthy forms of bereavement include
meaning making as a coping response to loss as well as a move away from Freud’s original
postulation regarding the importance of decathexis as necessary to a healthy resolution of
grief. However, traumatic bereavement produces particular kinds of difficulties in meaningmaking
and the possible resolution of this kind of loss. The study explored responses in relation
to the traumatic loss of a child through homicide in a sample of 7 parents (2 couples, 3
mothers) who were identified through the The Compassionate Friends (TCF) chapter in
Highlands North, Johannesburg and who volunteered to take part in the study. Semi structured
interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and subjected to an interpretive thematic
content analysis. The thematic content analysis revealed that meaning making responses in
relation to the loss of a child through homicide, are complex and that somewhat unexpectedly,
parents experienced expectations from society and others to engage in particular kinds of
meaning-making as counterproductive and alienating. Issues concerning the simultaneous
introjection of and de-cathexis from the lost child also proved enlightening. Meaning-making
also involves both some degree of trauma resolution and the recognition of what the loss of the
significant other entails. The research also explored the choices and decisions that parents
reported as being important in response to the traumatic loss of their child, and therefore
suggests some useful pointers for those who encounter traumatically bereaved individuals in
the course of their work.
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Smith, Philip Alexander. "Senior primary school children's experience of the death of a parent : guidelines for assisting bereaved children." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/26255.
Full textAbstract:
Sufficient evidence exists to suggest that the death of a parent during the formative years of a child, which includes the senior primary school years, can have a devastating impact on the child's adjustment. Present available statistics in South Africa also suggest that many more school-going children will loose their parents over the next number of years due to a number of environmental factors, and also especially as a result of terminal illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. It was against this background that the study was undertaken. The problem is formulated as follows: - what factors and corresponding experiences influence the adjustment of senior primary school children who have been bereft of a parent?
- what guidelines can be prescribed to effectively assist children who have been bereft of a parent?
- to identify and describe bereaved senior primary school children's perceptions of the death of a parent in terms of related factors and corresponding experiences; and
- to describe guidelines for assisting children who have been bereft of a parent based on the findings of the research.
Thesis (PhD (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
Educational Psychology
unrestricted