Bereaved Parents' Outcomes 4 to 60 Months After Their Children's Deaths by Accident, Suicide, or Homicide: A Comparative Study Demonstrating Differences

Murphy, Shirley A.; Johnson, L. Clark; Wu, Lang; Fan, Juan Juan; Lohan, Janet

doi:10.1080/07481180302871

Cited by 173 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…That is, within the criteria proposed by both Horowitz et al and Prigerson and colleagues, there is little to no recognition of the complex factors that impact on the experience of grief. Indeed, empirical research clearly demonstrates that the dominant discourse does not adequately capture the grief experiences of many groups, such as bereaved parents and those bereaved through violent means (e.g., Breen, 2007;Currier, Holland, & Neimeyer, 2006;Doka, 1996;Harwood, Hawton, Hope, & Jacoby, 2002;Lord, 2000;Murphy, Johnson, Wu, Fan, & Lohan, 2003;Riches & Dawson, 2000;Rosenblatt, 2000). Yet, no distinction is made between their description of grief in their samples, which were primarily widows and widowers bereaved following the life-threatening illnesses of their spouses (e.g., Chen et al, 1999;Prigerson et al, 1995Prigerson et al, , 1996Prigerson et al, , 1997Schlernitzauer et al, 1998; see also Hogan et al, 2003Hogan et al, -2004Prigerson & Maciewjewski, 2005-2006, and the subsequent prescription of these "normal" and "complicated" reactions to different samples.…”

Section: Medicalization Of Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fundamental Paradox in the Grief Literature: A Critical Reflection

Breen

O’Connor

2007

Omega (Westport)

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A key theme in the bereavement literature is the recognition that every grief experience is unique and dependent on many variables, such as the circumstances of the death, characteristics of the bereaved individual, their relationship with the deceased, the provision and availability of support, and a myriad of sociocultural factors. Concurrently, there are corresponding efforts to define "normal" grief and delineate it from "complicated" grief experiences. The discord between these two potentially opposing statements remains a paradox evident within the three major tensions within the thanatological literature-the dominance of grief theories, the medicalization of grief, and the efficacy of grief interventions. Three recommendations for moving beyond the paradox are discussed-the provision of improved grief education for service providers, the bereaved, and the wider community; the conduct of research that emphasizes the context of grief and is relevant to service provision; and the examination of current grief interventions.A clear and consistent theme within the thanatological literature is the assertion that the grief experience is very much affected and influenced by a myriad of variables and the interactions between these variables. Various key reviews (e.g., Center for the Advancement

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Section: Medicalization Of Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fundamental Paradox in the Grief Literature: A Critical Reflection

Breen

O’Connor

2007

Omega (Westport)

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“…Increased suicidality, depression, PTSD, and complex grief are among some of the mental health problems commonly identified among survivors (Agerbo, 2005;Bailley, Kral, & Dunham, 1999;Calhoun & Allen, 1991;de Groot, de Keijser, & Neeleman, 2006;Farberow, 1991;Murphy, Johnson, Wu, Fan, & Lohan, 2003;Murphy, Tapper, Johnson, & Lohan, 2003).…”

Section: Suicide Survivorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surviving After Suicide Loss: The Healing Potential of Suicide Survivor Support Groups

Feigelman

2008

Illness, Crisis & Loss

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With participant observations from peer-facilitated suicide survivor support group meetings, collected over a four-year period, this article applies Shulman's dynamics of mutual aid theory to explain how survivors' healing is facilitated by support group participation. Shulman's principles provide guidance on how survivors help and empower each other to deal with their grief in survivor support groups. Group facilitators can provide more clarity and direction to survivors with Shulman's principles, better helping survivors to navigate the bewildering course of healing after suicide loss. We also suggest ways group facilitation knowledge-an essential resource for enhancing healing-can be more widely distributed.Key Words: suicide bereavement, suicide survivors, support group, healing, mutual aid group This analysis explores the neglected and dimly understood population of suicide survivors. Either because of stigma, fear, or a combination of these and other emotions, both the public-at-large and behavioral science researchers have paid scant attention to this population and to how survivors repair their lives after 285

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“…One study indicated that the divorce rates among bereaved parents are as much as eight times the norm (Lehman, Wortman, & Williams, 1987). Although a review of the bereavement literature by Oliver (1999) challenged this conclusion, methodological limitations associated with sampling and difficulties in tracking divorced couples make it impossible to draw clear conclusions about marital disruption from previous research (Murphy, Johnson, Wu, Fan, & Lohan, 2003).The time course for parental grief is uncertain and can be expected to show great variability. Traditional models that described the grief response (e.g., Lindemann, 1944) proposed that grief reactions should be completed within a few weeks to a few months after a death.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.

Rogers

Floyd

Seltzer

et al. 2008

Journal of Family Psychology

259

237

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The death of a child is a traumatic event that can have long-term effects on the lives of parents. This study examined bereaved parents of deceased children (infancy to age 34) and comparison parents with similar backgrounds (n = 428 per group) identified in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. An average of 18.05 years following the death, when parents were age 53, bereaved parents reported more depressive symptoms, poorer well-being, and more health problems and were more likely to have experienced a depressive episode and marital disruption than were comparison parents. Recovery from grief was associated with having a sense of life purpose and having additional children but was unrelated to the cause of death or the amount of time since the death. The results point to the need for detection and intervention to help those parents who are experiencing lasting grief. Keywords bereavement; nonnormative parenting; death of child; parental grief; midlife Each year, over 50,000 U.S. children die (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 2000). The death of a child is one of the most painful events that an adult can experience and is linked to complicated/traumatic grief reactions (Prigerson et al., 1999). For parents, the dissolution of the attachment relationship with the child elicits severe anxiety and other negative emotions associated with loss (Bowlby, 1980). Parents might also experience guilt about having been unable to protect the child (Gilbert, 1997). Furthermore, because the death of a child defies the expected order of life events, many parents experience the event as a challenge to basic existential assumptions (Wheeler, 2001).In light of the significance of child death as a traumatic experience for parents, research on parental bereavement is more limited than might be expected. Most studies have been clinical NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript descriptions of participants in grief support groups (e.g., Compassionate Friends), so the findings likely have been influenced both by the self-selection factors that led individuals to seek this type of help and by the participants' experiences in the support groups. As a result, the findings cannot be generalized to the broader population of bereaved parents. Furthermore, drawing from traditional models of grief resolution that emphasize relatively short-term adaptations, researchers have usually assessed functioning for only a brief period during the acute phase of bereavement. Few studies have examined longer term outcomes, and most that have done so have used retrospective reports, which are subject to distortion when individuals recall their functioning many years earlier (e.g., Nelson & Frantz, 1996;Stehbens & Lascari, 1974).The purpose of the present study was to examine the life course impacts of parental bereavement in an unselected sample of adults who were studied prospectively from early adulthood, prior to the birth of the child, to middle age, usually many years after the death of the child. We ide...

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Bereaved Parents' Outcomes 4 to 60 Months After Their Children's Deaths by Accident, Suicide, or Homicide: A Comparative Study Demonstrating Differences

Cited by 173 publications

References 29 publications

The Fundamental Paradox in the Grief Literature: A Critical Reflection

The Fundamental Paradox in the Grief Literature: A Critical Reflection

Surviving After Suicide Loss: The Healing Potential of Suicide Survivor Support Groups

Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.

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