HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Many researchers have noted that bereavement is a major stress factor associated with the etiopathogeny of psychological disorders among immigrants, but until now, the grief reactions of these ethnic minorities have not been analyzed. This study aims to examine the impact of the migration trajectory (immigration status and duration) as well as the use of ritual support to cope with grief reactions in the context of migration. Fifty-four migrants and 20 refugees (N = 74) in France and Belgium were surveyed regarding their experience of mourning a family member. The results showed that complicated grief is associated with the status and duration of immigration. A majority of refugees reported a deterioration of their social life when the duration of their immigration exceeded 10 years. Feeling guilty, dazed or stunned, loneliness, bitterness, numbness, and emptiness made up the spectrum of severe and persistent guilt reactions. Those who took part in bereavement rituals suffered less from feelings of guilt and despondency. Eldest siblings presented a very high rate of complicated grief. These findings were discussed using a psycho-cultural approach; they demonstrated that in the context of migration, grief reactions develop around the principle of debt, based on the parent–child relationship inextricably associated with a feeling of belonging to the ethnic group and collective memory.
The current article focused on examining the potential benefits of the End-of-Life (EoL) informal caregiving, communication, and ritualistic behaviors in adaptation to the conjugal bereavement across two different cultural-background contexts: France and Togo, West Africa. The investigation adopted a transnational approach including a total of 235 bereaved spouses. Despite the variation in the length of time since death, no significant difference was found between the Togolese and French bereaved with respect to the level of complicated grief symptoms. However, the Togolese bereaved perceived a significant postloss growth, fostered by EoL communication with the dying and the performance of ritualistic behaviors. In the French sample, bereaved individuals who had experienced more intimate communication with their dying spouse reported a high level of postloss growth. Moreover, findings showed that EoL caregiving without ritualistic support or communication is associated with poor postbereavement outcomes. These findings suggest a clinical need to promote informal caregiving to the dying, communication with the dying, and ritualistic support during the process of dying as entangled components of EoL care.Résumé Dans cet article, nous avons examiné le potentiel effet positif de l'assistance au conjoint en fin de vie, de la communication avec lui et des actes rituels sur
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