The impact of parental suicide on surviving children and their family system has received inadequate research attention. Using a qualitative narrative methodology with thematic analysis, we explored the short-term and lifelong impact of parental suicide among 10 adults who, as children or adolescents, had lost a parent through suicide. The suicide triggered a wide range of structural and relational changes to the family, resulting in a cascading series of negative outcomes. These systemic issues are discussed and recommendations made about support structures for bereaved children and their families. Limitations of the study are discussed and future research directions identified.
Moral injury is the current term describing the breaching or violation of one’s moral code and has gained international research attention due to suicide linkages in military populations (Jamieson et al., Invisible wounds and suicide: Moral injury and veteran mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 29, 105–109, 2020). Moral injury’s core features are spiritual/existential conflict, shame, guilt and self‐condemnation. To date, research focuses on the core features of moral injury and or the nature of events that exposed individuals to moral injury. Walker and Avant (Strategies for Theory Construction in Nursing, Prentice Hall New York, 2011) concept analysis model was used to examine the literature. The aim of this study is to enhance understanding of the defining attributes, antecedents, consequences and empirical referents of moral injury and systematically analyse the concept of moral injury in the context of military members. A literature search was undertaken using specific websites and journals, electronic databases, library catalogues and hand‐searches. Concept analysis was used to explicate moral injury, focusing exclusively on use of the concept in the included literature, comparing the terms used over time and across disciplines, and measurement tools for the concept. This concept analysis provides a renewed definition of moral injury in relation to the experience of veterans – ‘moral trauma’ and defined as: ‘the existential, psychological, emotional and or spiritual trauma arising from a conflict, violation or betrayal, either by omission or commission, of or within one’s moral beliefs or code(s)’. The analysis will facilitate understanding and operationalization of the concept applied to teaching, learning, practice and research.
The complex family environments in which a suicide death had previously occurred were explored in a qualitative study of narratives of suicide-bereaved participants. The participants searched for reasons why the suicide occurred in their family. Family patterning stories and the context of the environment in which the suicide death occurred provided an additional depth of meaning into the relational aspects of the family. Fractured families emerged as an important theme. Shared in the narratives were stories of conditions within the family that may have contributed to vulnerability towards persistent negative feelings about their lives, their family, and their future. The study also identifies the strengths of family culture that led to resilience in the suicide bereaved. These stories highlight the importance of support for those bereaved by the suicide of a close family member and the issues that places people in vulnerable situations that perhaps may explain the increased risk of suicide for those bereaved family members.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.