Suicide is an irreversible and tragic act that often leaves people confused and stigmatised. Immediately after a completed suicide, people’s thoughts usually turn to the suicide victim. Yet, the real victims of this tragedy are those individuals who are left behind to cope with the emotional trauma to loose a significant other. They often struggle with unanswerable questions, self-blaming and an inability to move on with their lives. This thesis aims to address two pertinent issues. The first is that little is known regarding the qualitative aspects of adolescent suicide survivors’ emotional experiences, meaning-making and coping behaviour. The second is that formal and informal caregivers have a need for psychoeducational resource material to effectively support adolescent suicide survivors during postvention. A psychological-phenomenological approach has been chosen as the fundamental ideological stance within the psycho-educational programme development structure of the study. Furthermore, the methodological assumptions of the phenomenological interview were enriched with some narrative principles and an arts-based component. The situation analysis’ research participants comprised of female late adolescents (17-22 years old) whom were recruited by means of criterion sampling. The most important specific inclusion criterion was that they had direct experience of being a suicide survivor; the suicide victim could be any significant person with whom the participant had had a meaningful relationship, such as a close friend, relative or direct family member. Data collection during the situation analysis primarily consisted of face-to-face phenomenological interviews. A pre-interview task to create a personalised collage was given to the research participants. These self-created collages served as narrative-facilitators during the interviews. Some of the participants provided additional documentary material in the form of personal diaries, letters and poems. ABSTRACT vi The data analysis basically followed Giorgi’s phenomenological method, especially due to its strong psychological sensitivity. Some supplementary analysis principles from the phenomenological approaches of Kruger and Wertz were integrated into Giorgi’s method to strengthen and support its psychological and educational inclinations. The principles of Guba’s model were employed in the verification of the research process. The themes that emerged from the phenomenological analysis were categorised into peri-suicide experiences (those experiences in the days around the suicide events that ended with the funeral) and post-suicide experiences (those experiences in the weeks, months and years following the direct suicide events). Each of these two parts consists of three experience clusters. The experience clusters for the peri-suicide experiences are the following: “Awareness of victim’s suicide-associated behaviour directly prior to the suicide”; “Immediate reactions on becoming aware of the suicide” and “Reactions in the days following the suicide”. The experience clusters for the post-suicide experiences are the following: “Falling apart”; “Being shattered” and “Putting the pieces back together”. The research participants’ experiences of the collage-making process per se, as well as the actual process of collage-making that they engaged in are also addressed. A web-based psycho-educational programme was developed from the rich research results obtained during the situation analysis. This programme can be used as a postvention resource instrument by adolescent survivors and caregivers of suicide survivors alike. / Prof. C.P.H. Myburgh
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3645 |
| Date | 21 August 2008 |
| Creators | Hoffmann, Willem Abraham |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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