Thesis advisor: Matthew Monnig / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No description available.

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.

Internationally, there have been few studies examining the attitudes of people who have been raped towards police (Jordan, 2001a; Lievore, 2005; Temkin, 1997, 1999). Little research in Australia (particularly South Australia) has examined the experiences of victims/survivors of rape with police. Existing data do show that women who have been raped rarely report assaults to police. This has been attributed by researchers to a range of reasons, both personal and systemic, including the influence of stereotypes and myths about rape on victims’/survivors’ decision-making. Rape myths often reflect community attitudes, social norms and police responses. For example, victims/survivors may blame themselves and also expect police will blame or disbelieve them. Such expectations (or subsequent experiences) of negative police responses undermine victims’/survivors’ faith in police. However, this is not the whole story. In reality, police responses to rape are complex and inconsistent, influenced by both individual and organisational factors. I initiated this study to explore victims’/survivors’ expectations of, and experiences with, police in a transparent and accessible forum. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 women who had been raped in South Australia, my findings illustrated the diversity of South Australia Police responses to victims/survivors of rape and suggested that South Australia Police practices were similar to those of other Australian and English-speaking jurisdictions. Overall, interactions with South Australia Police ‘simultaneously provide grounds for hope and are disappointing (Lievore, 2005: 59; emphasis added). In many cases police responses were disappointing, through service provision that was partly or wholly negative. Specific individual and organisational factors were associated with satisfactory or unsatisfactory police practices. Poor service provision was evident in individual police officers’ apathy and dismissive or disbelieving responses, and through low prioritisation and limited resourcing of sexual violence at an organisation level. However, my findings indicated that there was also much to be hopeful about when considering South Australia Police responses to rape. The participants in my study often reported exemplary service from individual officers. At the reporting and investigation stages, good practices were based on ‘procedural justice’ rather than ‘outcome justice’: characterised by strong communication, empathy and professionalism at an individual level and consistency at an organisational level.

The diploma thesis focuses on counselling for survivors in the Czech Republic. The aim is to outline the form of counselling for survivors in the CR and to clarify the meaning and the role of counselling services for survivors from the perspective of hospice facilities and counselling for survivors. The first part of thesis is the fundamental concept of death, mourning, counseling for survivors and it´s process. This part is followed by the operationalization chapter that explains the research questions. The research was conducted with employees in hospice facilities and counseling offices. The research results shed light on the form, meaning and role of counseling for survivors in the process of coping with grief. The thesis also deals with the institutionalization and professionalization of counselling for survivors and highlights the lack of systematic education in this area.

No description available.

No description available.

Teilw. zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss.

No description available.

The relationship between alexithymia, PTSD symptoms, attachment, and depression was examined using archival data from a university-based trauma clinic. Participants were 62 women and 20 men, ages ranging from 17 to 59, with childhood histories of physical or sexual abuse. Measures included the Structured Clinical Interview on Childhood Sexual Abuse History (SI-SA), Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). As predicted, alexithymia, PTSD symptoms, and depression were negatively correlated with secure attachment and positively correlated with insecure attachment. Also as predicted, depression and insecure attachment styles containing negative models of the self (need for approval, discomfort with closeness) mediated the relationship between alexithymia and PTSD symptoms while styles involving positive models of the self (confidence, relationships as secondary) did not. Preoccupation with relationships was excluded from mediation analyses because alexithymia was not a significant predictor of this construct. Results suggest that the symptom profile of adult survivors of childhood abuse can be complex and may require interventions that target a broad range of symptoms and difficulties including alexithymia, attachment, and depression.