The primary purpose of this study was to examine nurses including student nurses perceptions of death education in southern Alberta as one way of improving futrue nursing curricula. Five nurse subgroups were included, as follows: college and university students, hospital nurses, community nurses, and nurse educators. A questionnaire was developed and piloted prior to distribution to 450 nurses in six locations, including two urban and four rural sites, in southern Alberta. Completed, useable returns numbered 373 (83%). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and t-tests were used to analyze the data from scaled questionnaire items; content analysis was used to interpret written response items. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks were developed and utilized to guide the interpretation of findings. Generally, nurses perceived that existing death education remains inadequate as preparation for sound clinical nursing practice. Several statistically significant findings related to the provision of professional terminal care were reported amon the five nurse subgroups. Nurses identified concerns and deficits within existing nursing death educaiton and offered several specific suggestions for improvement. The improvement of death education for nurses will most likely result in the delivery of safe, effective, quality nursing care practice to the dying person and family. / xi, 160 leaves : ill., charts ; 28 cm.

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 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

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)

The purpose of this research study was to capture the experience of a multigenerational, resilient family who had experienced a nonnormative stressor event. A phenomenological case-study approach was utilized as methodology to guide this study. Interviews were held collectively with the entire family and individually with participating family members. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The family's story of resilience emerged from this transcript material. In addition, the process of thematic analysis yielded nine main intergenerational themes that helped to explain this family's resilience. They included: 1) Be flexible about communication; 2) Connect with one another; 3) Have access to and accept support; 4) Detach from the experience; 5) Normalize the stressor; 6) Minimize the children's distress; 7) Focus on the positive; 8) Find strength in religion and 9) Find creative ways of coping. Results also indicated a strong multigenerational component to this family's resilience. In addition, resilience was found to be a process made up of both struggle and occasional costs. Findings were compared to relevant professional literature on family resilience, including The Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation developed by McCubbin, McCubbin, Thompson and Thompson in 1995. All of these findings led to a number of implications for counselling practice, as well as for future research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph.D.(Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Suicide is one of the major global public health challenges, with evidence showing that an interplay of multiple factors leads to someone taking their life. While suicide is often a solitary act, its impact on other people is far-reaching. When someone commits suicide, family and friends are almost always left behind to grieve, trying to understand the reasons for the suicide and having to learn to continue with their lives. Because suicide happens within families, its impact on the remaining members is of paramount importance. Understanding the impact of suicide on the surviving family members is a critical step in determining how to assist survivors. The study comprised eleven (11) participants who were all nuclear family members bereaved by suicide in the Capricorn District of Limpopo Province, South Africa. They were all from the Sepedi-speaking ethnic group. Data was collected through in-depth, semi structured, individual face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was done through the use of Hycner’s phenomenological explication process. The following themes were extracted from the participants’ case studies: knowledge of suicide; causes of suicide; methods used in the act; the impact of suicide on the family; prevention of suicide; coping strategies; grief following suicide and grief following other causes of death; concerns about the topic of suicide; and, suggestions in terms of support for suicide bereaved families. The current study reveals that there is still a lot of secrecy around psychological problems which lead people to suicide with the survivors not knowing who or what to blame. It is also evident from the findings that suicide bereaved people tended to be psychologically disturbed, less likeable and more blameworthy than non-suicidally bereaved. The psychological impact experienced includes depression, self-blame, aggression, suicidal ideations and also resulting in hospitalisation for some. Suicide can lead to longer and more complicated grief reactions because family members cannot share their experiences or thoughts, particularly the feelings of guilt that they are struggling with. The stigma from society does not make it any easier for survivors to deal with their grief, leading them to isolate themselves with fear of being judged. Based on the study findings, a culturally informed psychological model of suicide bereavement was developed to explain the lived experiences of African family v members bereaved by suicide. The model incorporates some ideas from Bowen’s structural family theory and the Afrocentric theory. This model proposes that suicide may cause a break-up within the family system and that cultural beliefs may be unfavourable in some instances. For instance, in this study, it was found that some Africans still believe that suicide is a taboo and a curse, which contradicts the psychological importance of viewing the victim’s body by family members. Being unable to view the deceased causes complications in the bereavement process, which leads to psychological problems. It further proposes that African culture is broad and still follows the norms and values in most situations, while these norms and values also play a role in the outcome of the bereavement process. These norms and values may lead to a breakdown of the family structure, leaving them with conflicts or complicated grief, leading to more psychological problems.

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / African people have a long history of using traditional herbs to treat various ailments, including mental health. However, because there is not much empirical data supporting the use of traditional herbs in the treatment of mental illnesses, the purpose of this study was to explore the usage of molebatša in bereavement care in the Mopani district. The research study used a qualitative approach and a snowball sampling process to recruit a total of nine participants (Females = 7; males = 2). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The collected data was analyzed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. The following were the primary themes that emerged from the research: - a) descriptions of the nature of bolebatša; b) preparation and administration of bolebatša for medicinal purposes; c) conditions managed with bolebatša and d) the role of spirituality in traditional medicine. The findings of the study revealed that bolebatša is a herb with furry coating of hair-like structures, harvested from the Molebatša tree, scientifically known as Lannea schweinfurthii. The harvested bolebatša is mostly dried and taken orally, either with warm water, porridge or its dried skins are chewed. It was determined, based on the findings of the investigation, that the herb has the ability to induce forgetfulness and this was beneficial in treating various psychological ailments (such as trauma, bereavement and grief and adjustment disorders) as well as spiritual conditions, with no adverse side effects. Recommendations emerging from the study call for more investigations to scientifically validate the efficacy of this herbal extract. / HWSETA

Evidence indicates that flexible self-regulation is a key mechanism of adaptation to major life stressors. To date, various domains of flexible regulation and their role in adaptation to a major life stressor, including coping strategies, affective regulation, and cognitive abilities have been conceptualized and studied in isolation. Further, there is limited understanding of the longitudinal impact of dimensions of flexible coping in the context of bereavement. This dissertation filled several gaps in the literature with three empirical studies. Study 1 clarified the longitudinal impact of divergent sets of coping strategies that underlie flexible coping following the loss of a loved one. Study 2 determined how separate, validated domains of flexibility would empirically cluster together, and tested the cross-sectional impact of the empirically derived latent composites on adaptation following a significant potentially traumatic event (PTE). Study 3 augmented findings from Study 2 by using the empirically derived composites to predict longitudinal adaptation following a PTE, exploring the moderating role of demographic variables, and comparing the predictive utility of the latent composites versus their original features. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

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.

Understanding and prediction of children's adaptation to loss requires attention to family characteristics and interpersonal patterns in addition to individual variables. Empirical inquiries into family variables have indicated that the concepts of cohesion and expressiveness in particular may be useful in explaining members' adjustment. Using both deductive and inductive methods this study developed a reliable behavioral coding system for observing family members as they described the story of a child's death. The study also examined the relationship of these observable behaviors to both self-reports of cohesion and expressiveness and measures of individual adjustment. In terms of convergent validity the Expressiveness subscale of the Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1986) was more readily associated with observable behaviors than was the Cohesion subscale. Discriminant validity was not established, however, and possible explanations for this were discussed. Examination of criterion-related and predictive validity demonstrated the uti1ity of both se1f-report and behavioral measures of cohesion and expressiveness in accounting for parental depression, child behavior problems, and other specific indicators of distress. Implications for clinical intervention with bereaved families were discussed. / Ph. D.