Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-113).

Bereavement intervention is subsumed within palliative programme philosophy which encompasses the family as the unit of care and provides a continuum of care that extends beyond the death of a family member. There is no available research on the effect of post-bereavement intervention within palliative programming, and very limited research exists that evaluates the effect of intervention on bereavement outcome. This exploratory study endeavors to differentiate bereavement outcome between two populations having palliative/hospice program support but only one choosing to participate in bereavement follow-up. A mixed strategy of quantitative and grounded theory approaches provided an expanded analysis through which meaning structures and time/process parameters for grieving individuals were explored. The study extended from idiosyncratic data into the realm of larger systemic interactions. An important finding was that the amount of time for preparation for the death of a family member is crucial. Other mitigating factors influencing the grief outcome were social support, network viability, and age. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 1997. / The aim of this study was to establish the effect of the death of a parent on the psychic life of a child and the support available to assfst the child in his bereavement. As introduction a psychopedagogic perspective of the family was given in describing marriage, the family as an education milieu, parental roles and the special relationship between parent and child. The accompaniment of the child towards adulthood is dependent on the quality of the parent-child relationship. The parents' educational responsibility is to provide adequately for the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of the child. The death of a parent is a traumatic experience for the child. The child feels the effects of death as intensely as an adult but in different ways. Research contributions on how children develop an understanding about death are in general agreement that this understanding develops in an orderly sequence from a state of total unawareness in very early childhood through stages to the point where death can be considered logically in cause of terms and outcome. The death of a parent can affect the child physically and psychologically. If the crisis situation of the child after the death of a loved one is not overcome, his becoming toward adulthood might be stifled. A wide range of behaviour problems may result in affective lability and hamper the child's cognitive development. To overcome the trauma of the death of a parent the child needs support from people close to him - people he knows and trusts. After the death of a parent the process of mourning is considered as very important to the child's -recovery", and needs to be facilitated by the remaining parent or by other significant adult figures. The church, school and welfare institutions also play an important role in rendering support to the bereaved child and his family. In conclusion, the findings emanating from the literature study were presented. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: Urgent attention must be given to the introduction of death education programmes in schools. School guidance counsellors must initiate the establishment of programmes on death and dying in schools. Further research on the affect of the death of a parent on children should be undertaken.

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The current paper reviews the recent literature on grief and resilience. Specific limitations are noted, namely the lack of attention in the grief literature given to traditional-age college students. The personality characteristics and coping strategies associated with resilient grievers are discussed, followed by a review of the issues and barriers specific to grieving college students. Finally, this paper provides suggestions for how universities and college counselors can promote resilience in grieving students in order to allow for better adjustment during bereavement. / text

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This study explores a unique Canadian weekend camp for children and adolescents who are grieving the death of someone significant in their lives. The camp provides recreational activities such as campfires, horseback riding, and wall-climbing as well as therapeutic activities to help with grief such as music therapy. As part of a larger project on Canadian music therapy programming for youth (called “Meeting Youth In Music”), the present study’s purpose is to identify how music therapy interventions are applied and experienced in a particular program with adolescents experiencing bereavement. A case study research design was used and data collected from multiple sources. Primary data were generated by interviewing five stakeholders: the program director, the music therapist, a volunteer, and one adolescent and her mother (who were interviewed together). Thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts, resulting in the identification of numerous themes about the application of music therapy practices. Identified themes characterize music therapy practices as fostering community connections, encouraging emotional expression, and supporting therapeutic practices for diverse populations. Findings of the current study suggest that music therapy interventions can provide benefit for bereaved adolescents. Future research can investigate the specific mechanisms of music which provide such therapeutic benefits.

This thesis is a response to the abstract phenomenon of bereavement as well as to the death of an actual beloved. It situates mourning as ethically and politically significant, reading it as an instance of crisis for the bereaved subject as well as for the culture in which she is located. Via theorists as diverse as Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, Dominick LaCapra and Donald Winnicott, the thesis considers the enabling potential that is implicated in this crisis. It suggests that mourning has the capacity to manifest productively as a form of localised intervention or "revolt" that simultaneously invigorates the inner life of the subject and subverts certain ideological aspects of contemporary, Western culture. In particular, the thesis suggests that the significance of productive mourning lies in its capacity to attenuate, via an anti-elegiac approach to narrative, the normative discourse of "identity", a crucial element of the discursive network that sustains a socio-political system mired in the "truth" of liberal individualism. Productive mourning facilitates an interrogation of the self-other/subject-object dialectic embedded in Western culture. This interrogation might be conceived as a deconstruction of the subject in its privileged status relative to alterity, the deconstruction of, in other words, "identity" and its processes. The thesis is informed by the author's experience of bereavement and mourning following suicide. Utilising a fictocritical approach, it performs a commentary in addition to an argument, evincing a unique approach to delineating the personal, cultural and ethical significance of loss.

Aim. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship of personality guilt- and shame-proneness to grief and psychological dysphoria following bereavement due to stillbirth or death in the newborn period. Methods. Participating parents completed self-report questionnaire measures of proneness to situational guilt and shame (Test of Self-Conscious Affect-2), chronic guilt and shame (Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2) and interpersonal guilt (Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire-67), grief (Perinatal Grief Scale-33) and psychological dysphoria (General Health Questionnaire-28) one month (�early�, N = 158) and 13 months (�late�, N = 149) after a perinatal death. Results. Women compared with men self-reported more intense grief, anxiety and depression one month after the death, but there were no significant sex differences in grief or psychological dysphoria one year later. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that composite shame (situational and chronic) explained a small but statistically significant proportion of the variance in early total grief (adjusted R 2 = .09) and anxiety (adjusted R 2 = .07) in women, and early total grief (adjusted R 2 = .19), anxiety (adjusted R 2 = .13) and depression (adjusted R 2 = .10) in men. Composite guilt (situational, chronic and interpersonal) controlled for shame did not make a significant further contribution to the variance in early total grief, anxiety or depression in either sex. Composite shame explained not only significant but meaningful proportions of the variance in late grief (adjusted R2=.27), anxiety (adjusted R2=.21) and depression (adjusted R2=.27) in women, and late grief (adjusted R2= .56),anxiety (adjusted R 2= .30) and depression (adjusted R2= .51) in men. Composite guilt controlled for shame made significant further contributions to the variancein late grief (∆R 2 = .21), anxiety (∆R 2 = .16) and depression (∆R 2 = .25) in women, and late grief (∆R 2 = .11) in men. Shame and guilt together explained a substantial proportion of the variance in late grief (adjusted R2= .45), anxiety (adjusted R2= .33) and depression (adjusted R2= .49) in women, and late grief (adjusted R2= .64), anxiety (adjusted R2= .35) and depression (adjusted R2= .56) in men. Situational shame, chronic guilt and survivor guilt made positive unique contributions to the variance in late grief in women. Chronic shame and survivor guilt made unique contributions to the variance in late grief in men. Situational guilt made a significant unique negatively valenced contribution to the variance in late grief in women. Early composite shame, but not guilt, predicted late grief, anxiety and depression in men. Early composite shame and/or guilt did not predict late grief, anxiety or depression in women. Conclusion. Personality proneness to shame was more relevant to late grief, anxiety and depression in men than in women, but survivor guilt was equally important to late grief in both sexes. Chronic guilt and functional situational guilt were pertinent to late grief, anxiety and depression in women, but not in men. Personality shame- and guilt-proneness have important relationships with parental grief after perinatal death that have not hitherto been recognised.