Although significant growth has occurred in some areas of the grief and bereavement literature, little attention has been paid to the phenomenon of adult child loss from the perspective of parents. Simultaneously, there have been mounting challenges to the traditional grief work hypothesis, which translates 'detachment' as healthy grieving, by proponents of the 'continuing bond' model. While the notion of an ongoing connection with the deceased seems to more accurately describe the experience of bereaved parents, there has been minimal research to explore evidence for this. The intent of this qualitative study was to examine the written and spoken discourse of parents bereaved of adult children in an effort to understand the ways that language is used to give account to that experience and to discern something of the nature of the parent-adult child relationship in death. A discourse analytic approach (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) was taken in order to understand more specifically the function, structure, and variability of written and spoken accounts of bereaved parents. Discourse was collected from diverse sources, including solicited written submissions, face-to-face interviews, published writings and Internet chat between bereaved parents. The findings revealed a range of discursive devices and practices available to participants, through which they achieved reconstructions of their deceased adult children, their relationships with their children, and their experiences of parental bereavement. The most prominent result was the discovery of the use of extreme case formulations (Pomerantz, 1986) by bereaved parents. This particular discursive device had only previously been identified in contexts of conflict. Additionally, participants used categorization, detailed description, characterization, comparison, contrast, paradox, evidence-building, and metaphor as discursive strategies and devices. The social actions performed in the process included: constructing/reconstructing, convincing, remembering, evaluating, describing, and demonstrating parental investment. The discursive content ranged from talk of how special the child was, to the constancy of thoughts about the deceased child. There was also discursive evidence in support of the of 'continuing bonds' model. This study promises to inform the literature on parental bereavement as well as to widen the field of discursive psychology to now include research in grief and loss.

abstract: Using data from a randomized, experimental trial of a brief family-based preventive intervention for parentally-bereaved families, this study evaluated whether participation in the Family Bereavement Program (FBP) when the offspring were in childhood/adolescence (ages 8 to 16) improved competencies when the offspring were emerging/young adults (ages 23 to 32). Participants were 244 emerging/young adults; data used were from assessments at pretest, posttest, 6 years post-intervention, and 15 years post-intervention. In addition to testing the direct effects of the program, developmental cascade effects models were used to test the relations between program-induced improvements in positive parenting and decreased negative life events at posttest and subsequent effects on domains of competence and behavior problems in adolescence/emerging adulthood (ages 14 to 22) and four developmental competencies of emerging/young adulthood: academic, peer, romantic, and work competence. Results supported a cascading effects model of program effects on competence outcomes. In the full sample, there were significant mediation effects of the intervention to decreased negative life events at posttest to increased grade-point average (GPA) at the 6-year follow-up to higher academic and work competence at the 15-year follow-up. For females only, two additional significant mediational pathways of the FBP occurred. The FBP led to an increase in peer competence 6 years post-intervention, which was associated with an increase in work competence 15 years post-intervention. Also, the FBP led to a decrease in externalizing problems in adolescence/emerging adulthood, but externalizing problems were positively associated with work competence. For males, additional mediation effects of the FBP on work competence occurred. The FBP decreased negative life events. However, higher negative life events were associated with lower externalizing problems in adolescence/emerging adulthood, and externalizing problems were positively associated with work competence. For males only, a significant three-pathway mediation effect of the intervention occurred on increased positive parenting at posttest to increased romantic attachment at the 6-year follow-up to higher romantic competence at the 15-year follow-up. Peer competence showed continuity over development. Mediational analyses highlighted the role of program-induced improvements in parenting, reductions in exposure to negative life events, and earlier developmental competencies on competence outcomes in emerging/young adulthood. Implications for promoting resilience in parentally-bereaved, at-risk youth are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2020

Parental bereavement has widely been considered, in the context of child development and well being, to be one of the most traumatic events that can occur in childhood. Parental bereavement through substance misuse is a previously unresearched aspect of bereavement research, and a previously unresearched aspect of ‘hidden harm.’ This qualitative research looks at the lived experiences of four girls who have been parentally bereaved through substance misuse, using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). IPA serves the dual purposes of ‘giving voice’ to these previously unheard voices, and interpreting their experience of dealing with bereavements, through the lens of psychological theory and the wider canon of bereavement research. The information for the analysis was collected in individual meetings with each of the girls, gathered through semi structured interviews which took place over one to four meetings. Life for all the girls was difficult and complicated as a consequence of their parents’ troubled lives, and for all the girls their lives were marked by multiple losses and adverse childhood events both before and after their mother’s or father’s death. The analysis tries to capture the children’s narratives about their lives as a journey in which one girl is managing to stay ‘on track’, whilst the others have gone ‘off the rails.’ None of the girls had made a deliberate choice to be ‘off the rails’, yet the environment in which they live meant their life journey is a stormy one, with no safe haven, and their lives have not offered them the ‘lifelines’ they needed in order to stay ‘on track’, and navigate their way through this traumatic event. They feel shame for their disruptive manifestations of grief, for the ways in which they ‘cope ugly.’ They now have ‘spoiled identities’, and are struggling to achieve a sense of self that will help them to make the transition to adulthood. The experience of the fourth girl demonstrates the ways in which she works to achieve her personal identity, preserve her ‘reputation’, and the secure attachment she needed, in order to police her potentially disruptive manifestations of grief. In the context of this research ‘on track’ or ‘off the rails’ are positioned as more helpful constructs than ‘normal’ and ‘complicated’ grief. The findings of this small scale research demonstrate the risks and inaccuracies in accepting the conclusion of large scale research studies which seem to indicate parental bereavement is not a risk factor for child wellbeing when family variables are taken in to account. Instead it demonstrates the ways in which dealing with parental bereavement, especially when compounded by other complex life events and insecure attachments, can result in children being positioned as ‘bad’ rather than ‘sad’ as villains rather than victims, children for whom their troubled lives and loss offer ‘no excuse’ for their troubled grieving. More research is needed to understand more about the lives and experiences of this vulnerable sub group of parentally bereaved children.

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The experiment examined negative social reactions to bereaved parents from unrelated others. Both the behavior displayed by the parent and attachment style of the perceiver were expected to influence reactions to bereaved parents. Undergraduates at a southern university (N = 239) completed both attachment measures and measures of reactions to videotapes of bereaved parents. Results indicated that bereaved parents do indeed receive negative evaluations from unrelated others, in the form of decreased willingness to interact in various roles. However, a nonbereaved parent displaying depressive symptoms also received negative evaluations. Depressed targets in the present study did receive negative evaluations, supporting the predictions of Coyne's interpersonal-process theory of reactions to depressed individuals. Contrary to the predictions of interpersonal-process theory, a bereaved parent displaying loss content without depressive symptoms also elicited negative evaluations. Coyne's hypothesis that the amount of induced negative affect in the perceiver leads to negative evaluations was not supported by the data. Subjects appear to react to a complex set of factors when forming these evaluations, including both personal and situational information. Two factors may have undermined the present study s ability to adequately test this theory. Subjects may have perceived depressive symptoms in loss content in the present study. Further, subjects may not have identified with the parent in the present study as anticipated. Research is necessary to identify the amount and focus of subjects' identifications with depressed and bereaved targets. Only minor support was found for the prediction that attachment style would be related to reactions to bereaved parents. Continuous measures of attachment style were related to amount of induced negative affect. However, grouping subjects by attachment patterns was not related to either induced negative affect or evaluations. The present study and previous research suggest the possibility that conceptually attachment may contain several components which relate to behavior in varying degrees and ways. Further study of the components of attachment is necessary to clarify what behaviors are related to attachment disturbance.

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Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The study sought to explore the sequel of bereavement on parentally bereaved students at the University of Limpopo. The study was qualitative in nature. Ten bereaved students (4 Males & 6 Females) were purposefully sampled and interviewed. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using a reflexive thematic data analysis method. The major themes that emerged from the data were isolated and outlined. The results showed that post-parental bereavement, students experienced and expressed their loss distinctly. Notably, their grief was expressed both emotionally, cognitively, behaviourally, physically and spiritually. In spite of the grief having been experienced and expressed diversely, the findings revealed that factors such as - a) circumstances surrounding the death of a parent, b) religious beliefs and cultural practices, c) meanings attached to the death, and, d) lack of support post-bereavement, all influenced participating students’ grief trajectory. On the one hand, the results highlighted that students relied on diverse strategies (e.g., bereavement rituals, counselling services) which helped in their processing and coping with the death of a parent. In particular, psychological counselling was found to be beneficial, although it was associated with mental health stigma. The study findings therefore suggest that parental bereavement can result in the experience of grief, which is an emotionally painful experience that can be complicated secondary to a myriad of factors. A complicated grief experience could lead to academic underachievement in the student population. This therefore suggests that complicated bereavement needs to be treated as earliest as possible in order to avert its interference with the academic work of affected students. It is recommended further that higher institutions of learning need to invest more efforts to educate students on bereavement and its potential impact on their studies. Additionally, efforts should be directed at addressing the stigma of mental illness on-campus so as to help improve the user friendliness of on campus student psychological counselling services. The study is concluded by, amongst others, recommending that future research needs to look closely into university students’ meaning making process in bereavement.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:40:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniela Reis e Silva.pdf: 3479822 bytes, checksum: 2bd8dd4c462da22cc01284d074772bca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-11 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Suicide is a complex behavior and is considered as a public health problem. Little attention has been given to the surviving family members. The present research deals with the process of parental bereavement due to a child suicide. The process gathers two variable of potential risk for the development of complicated mourning: the loss of a child and the kind of death involving suicide. The research analyses matters related to the suicide of a child by means of a case study, which is based on a qualitative method, involving a mother who lost her son by suicide one year and three months before the study. A semi-structured interview and the construction of a genogram are used as tools. The thematic analysis reveals a singular bereavement process involving trauma and grief. It presents the son characteristics, the illness history, the suicide, the shock, the guilt, the paralysis, longing feelings, sadness, the ups and downs, the health and the resiliency among other emerging aspects, which seem to be mixed in the participant s verbalization influencing in a recurrent way the mourning process. The author draws the conclusion that religiosity, professional support, social support, art, meaning constructions, the way of sharing among other resources of confrontation can contribute positively, although in a short period of time, for a change in the future expectation. The author considers that the achieved information is only the beginning of recognition of the importance of not labeling negatively the survival family members over suicide, besides the possibility of breaking silence and prejudice involved in it so that they can receive the right support / O suicídio é um ato complexo considerado problema de saúde pública, e pouca atenção tem sido dispensada aos sobreviventes. Este trabalho trata do processo de luto de pais por suicídio de um filho por englobar duas variáveis de potencial risco para o desenvolvimento do luto complicado: a perda de um filho e a morte por suicídio. Examina o processo à luz do paradigma sistêmico. Adota uma metodologia de abordagem qualitativa, mediante um estudo de caso que envolve uma mãe enlutada há um ano e três meses. Utiliza como instrumentos uma entrevista semiestruturada e a construção do genograma familiar. A análise temática revela uma riqueza nos dados obtidos, apesar do trauma e do sofrimento envolvidos, mostrando que as características do filho, a história da doença, o suicídio, o choque, a culpa, a paralisia, a saudade, a tristeza, os altos e baixos, a saúde, a resiliência, entre outros aspectos emergentes que aparecem mesclados no discurso da participante, influenciam de maneira recursiva o processo de luto. Conclui que a religiosidade, o apoio profissional, o apoio social, a arte, a construção de significados, o compartilhar, entre outros recursos de enfrentamento, podem contribuir positivamente, mesmo em pouco tempo, para uma mudança nas expectativas para o futuro. Considera que os dados obtidos são apenas o começo do reconhecimento da importância do cuidado de não se rotular negativamente os sobreviventes ao suicídio, além da possibilidade de romper o silêncio e o preconceito que os envolvem, para que possam receber o acolhimento adequado