The purpose of this paper was to attempt to identify variables which may enhance the ability of older widowed persons to adjust to viii bereavement. Depression and perceptions of physical health were the two aspects of adjustment selected for study. Several variables which current literature suggests may mediate grief adjustment were examined for their potential relationship to bereavement outcome. These were gender, level of grief, anticipatory grief and social network. The possible relationship between depression and perceptions of physical health was also examined for. Subjects were 75 men and women, age 55 and over, who were recently widowed, and 29 non-bereaved men and women who served as controls. All subjects were caucasian, Mormon, and lived in small rural communities. To gather data on the variables in question, these instruments were used: the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Texas Inventory of Grief. Information on anticipatory grief, social network, and self-ratings of physical health was obtained using a structured interview developed at the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California. Data was gathered at two times. The initial interview was held within two months of the death of each bereaved subject's spouse, and again six months later. Control subjects were interviewed twice, six to eight months apart. Multiple regression equations with foreward inclusion were computed to identify those variables which accounted for most of the cvariance in depression scores and self-ratings of physical health. Gender and bereavement status (whether a subject was bereaved or control) were not found to be significantly related to depression or self-ratings of physical health. Social network variables were found to facilitate lower depression scores and higher ratings of physical health, although the aspects of social network which were significant varied over time (initially family, then later non-family relationships were most important.) Depression and self-ratings of physical health were closely related. High level of grief was closely associated with high depression scores, but not with self-ratings of physical health. Expectation of the spouse's death was associated with lower self-ratings of physical health.

The idea for my thesis stemmed from a braided essay I wrote for a creative writing class. I didn’t initially plan on expanding my class essay into a memoir, but I have discovered that oftentimes the story finds us rather than the other way around. Using the memoir form allowed me to bridge quite naturally the subjects of grief and landscape by giving me space to reflect on a turbulent period in my life and arrive at some sort of conclusion. While I could see the importance of the natural world in my life, I didn’t realize at first how it helped me work through the grief, depression, and anxiety I experienced after my mother passed away. Writing about that period of my life helped me see the direct connections between landscape and healing. Grief itself can feel circular or like a whirlpool with no escape. Healing, on the other hand, transpires more linearly. For that reason, I decided to use geology as a metaphor to demonstrate how I worked through the emotional landscape of grief toward acceptance and healing after tragedy.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This essay explores a broad range of literary works that treat long-term grief as a natural response to the death of a child. Literary examples show gaps in the medical and social sciences’ considerations of grief, since these disciplines judge bereaved mothers’ grief as excessive or label it bereavement disorder. By contrast, authors who employ the ancient storyline of child death illuminate maternal grieving practices, which are commonly marked with a vigilance that expresses itself in wildness. Many of these authors treat grief as a forced pilgrimage, but question the possibility of returning to a previous state of psychological balance. Instead, the mothers in their stories and poems resist external pressure for closure and silence and favor lasting memory. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Emily Dickinson, in letters to bereaved mother Susan Gilbert Dickinson and in the poetry included in these letters, represent maternal child loss as compelling a movement into a new state and emphasize the lasting pain and disruption of this loss.

The problem of grief has been described as the pandemic within the pandemic. This project believes that the church can provide a holistic response to the bereaved through inclusive events, education, and a devotion to embracing a changing spiritual landscape. Through memorial ritual, proactive education and supportive relationships, grief can be transformational and nurture a positive spirituality grounded in welcoming Christianity. This ministry is applied at the First Congregational Church in the town of West Boylston, Massachusetts, a small mill town outside of Worcester with a long history of communal loss prior to the loss of the pandemic. / 2025-05-23T00:00:00Z

This qualitative study sought to understand how Emotionally Focused Therapists (EFT) apply the EFT model with couples that have experienced the death of a child. Criterion sampling and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants within the United States and internationally. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 participants, all of whom were women therapists. The data were analyzed using the Grounded Theory Method and two processes emerged. To convey and organize the processes and concepts of each, two diagrams of the actions and experiences noted in the interviews during analysis were created (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Figure 1 represents an external, multi-directional process of how EFT clinicians apply the EFT model with their clients. This figure encompasses 'how' clinicians adjust their approach to the model to meet the needs of their clients and work with couples that have experienced the death of a child. Figure 2 represents an internal process model of how applying the EFT model impacts the therapist on a personal level. This will be discussed through a self-of-the-therapist lens. / Master of Science

Bereavement is a challenging time for those experiencing a loss, and it poses a difficult clinical question: How do we help individuals who are grieving? The literature provides mixed evidence for variations in bereavement depending on the type of loss (e.g., suicide, expected natural, unexpected natural, accidental); however, there seems to be more overlap among grief processes than differences. Given that various religions tend to include tenets suggesting the sinfulness of death by suicide, the present study hypothesized that there would be greater levels of negative religious coping, less positive religious coping, less perceived religious support, and greater rates of lying about cause of death in response to suicide loss than natural or accidental deaths. Overall, our findings suggested little to no difference among positive religious coping or perceived religious support following suicide, accidental, or natural deaths. Various comparison methods yielded moderately consistent findings that individuals lied about cause of suicide death more often than natural or accidental deaths, consistent with extant research. Further, there was some evidence of greater levels of negative religious coping for accidental deaths than natural deaths. The current study contributes prevalence rates for exposure to and distress following suicide, natural, and accidental deaths, as well as suggesting that the role of religion in suicide bereavement need not be different from other types of death.

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