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In this study, the experiences and perspectives of 10 bereaved mothers were investigated. The research was guided by a feminist and contextual perspective. A contextual theory of stress supports an examination of the perspectives of individuals in families regarding the impact of stressful circumstances. Individuals are assumed to be both active and responsive to the social system which includes individual, dyadic, familial, social, community, and cultural levels of analysis. A feminist perspective emphasizes reflexivity, collaboration, emotionality, and accessibility in the process of research and focuses attention to broader cultural ideologies which influence the lives of individuals. Women's lives carry with them the assumption of motherhood and the protection of children. When a young child dies, mothers find themselves in a marginalized social category / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of grief on teachers of the severely disabled. Specifically, four areas of inquiry were pursued: the pattern of grief reactions of teachers following the death of a student, the need for bereavement support services, the need for pre-service and/or in-service training, and the effect of student death on the professional and personal lives of the teachers. Research was conducted on one student death immediately after it occurred. Four retrospective cases were also completed in order to gain information on the long range effects of death on teachers. Data were collected through review of the extant literature, informal direct observations, open ended interviews and review of the written documents. Data revealed that there is a consistent pattern of grief reactions exhibited by teachers. All teachers interviewed expressed a need for improved bereavement support as well as a need for additional pre-service and/or in-service training in issues of death and dying. The degree to which student death constituted a stress factor in the teachers professional and personal lives appears to be dependent upon the amount of time and the type of activities which the teachers had shared with the decreased student. Data analysis provided information for making recommendations to school systems, teacher training institutions and teachers for improving the quantity and quality of bereavement support. / Ph. D.

Increasing rates of adolescent homicide, suicide, and AIDS have forced researchers to relinquish comforting beliefs about youth and vitality, and to accept the reality of adolescent death. Previous studies of bereavement have given precedence to parental and fraternal relations, and peers of deceased adolescents have gone largely unnoticed. What literature exists in the area of peer bereavement suggests that the process of mourning a peer closely parallels the process of mourning a sibling. The present study set forth to study empirically the cognitive, behavioral, and affective responses of adolescents to the death of a peer, and to determine possible mediators of bereavement reactions. Fifty undergraduates who had recently lost a peer (bereaved) and 52 controls (nonbereaved) were compared on a series of objective measures. Beliefs about the meaningfulness of the world, self-worth, and morality emerged as important variables in distinguishing between bereaved and nonbereaved samples. Further, satisfaction with an available social support network, and locus of control appeared as significant variables, accounting for differences in grief responses of the bereaved. Results are discussed within a developmental framework. / Master of Science