Often considered the greatest of losses, a parent is never prepared for the death of a child. In addition to the unimaginable loss, there are practical issues that must be addressed, such as dealing with the belongings of the child. A study of spousal bereavement found that the way widows viewed the belongings of a spouse was related to complicated grief. The Dual Process Model of grief holds that bereaved people oscillate between a loss orientation and a restoration orientation as they deal with the death of a loved one and that this oscillation is a predictor of complicated grief. It was hypothesized that the significance that bereaved parents place on their child's belongings is a partial proxy of loss orientation. The Inventory of Daily Widowed Life was modified to apply to the death of any loved one and was used to measure oscillation. With the sample of bereaved parents, we found that oscillation explained 44% of the variance in scores on the Inventory of Complicated Grief after controlling for other known risk factors. A second analysis was performed, removing oscillation and using the subscale for restoration orientation and a measure of the significance of belongings. This model explained 39% of the variance in complicated grief after controlling for other known risk factors. This research suggests that the significance that parents place on the belongings of their deceased child may provide insight into the potential for complicated grief. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Social Work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 3, 2014. / Belongings, Bereavement, Child, Dual Process Model, Grief, Parent / Includes bibliographical references. / Neil Abell, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sally Karioth, University Representative; Nicholas F. Mazza, Committee Member; Bruce Thyer, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_185259 |
| Contributors | Hefren, Judith E. (authoraut), Abell, Neil (professor directing dissertation), Karioth, Sally (university representative), Mazza, Nicholas F. (committee member), Thyer, Bruce (committee member), College of Social Work (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
Page generated in 0.0024 seconds