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There is no uniform response to death, and the range of initial responses may run from delighted, satisfied and relieved, through to distraught, depressed and traumatised. This variability in initial response means that the subsequent course of bereavement is likely to equally varied-with final outcomes often dependent upon what has preceded them. Where some subset of final outcomes is of research interest, it is essential that the antecedents of, or preconditions for, the final outcome are of at least equal interest. This appears in some cases to have become less of a focus in the bereavement research on Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). Without at least attempting to distinguish normal mourning from depression, and traumatic from other pathological responses to bereavement, it is unlikely that PTG will be consistently associated with adjustment or distress. In this review, we outline some of the conceptual distinctions that may be important in increasing our understanding of responses to death and conclude that making such distinctions, where possible, can enhance our treatment approaches in terms of ensuring they are tailored to accommodate particular psychiatric syndrome(s) that can follow bereavement, but are also aimed at facilitating PTG in certain individuals.

This study explored bereaved mothers' responses to the death of a child from cancer, with a focus on identifying adaptive and complicated grief reactions. To understand the unique meaning of their loss, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 mothers at two time points. Interpretative phenomenological analysis-guided by meaning-making theories of loss-revealed five master categories: the perceptions of the child's life with cancer and death from the disease, changed self-identity, coping style, developing an ongoing relationship to the deceased child, and the postdeath social environment. Each of these master categories and associated subthemes provided insights into the characteristics of the bereaved mothers' adaptive and complicated grief responses to their loss. Given all the mothers evidenced multiple forms or types of these responses over time, they could not be categorized as adaptive or complicated grievers. However, the varying proportions of each of these responses highlighted differences in overall bereavement adaptation.

In this study, a constructivist data collection technique, the biographical grid method (BGM), was modified to accommodate the specific needs of mothers who had experienced the death of a child from cancer, and for the purpose of exploring meaning reconstruction and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in this population. Contrasting cases studies of two bereaved mothers are used to illustrate the research and clinical potential of the BGM in examining meaning reconstruction and PTG following the death of a child.

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