Grief and Posttraumatic Growth Among Chinese Bereaved Parents Who Lost Their Only Child: The Moderating Role of Interpersonal Loss

Xu, Xin; Wen, Jun; Zhou, Ningning; Shi, Guangyuan; Tang, Renzhihui; Wang, Jianping; Skritskaya, Natalia

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.558313

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Some researchers suggested high levels of psychological distress and prolonged grief disorder in these family members. In a study by Xin Xu et al (2020) [20], they describe the prevalence and manifestation of grief caused by the loss of the permitted, single child in Chinese culture. These families are not only afflicted by the loss of the child but also suffer from identity loss and social stigmatization.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grief: Aetiology, Symptoms and Management

Pop‐Jordanova

2021

Prilozi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Grief is a process provoked as a response to different losses, such as death, loss of job, relationship breakdown, some unexpected life events and changes, etc. The experiences of loss and bereavement are very individual. Even though loss is expected, the person feels traumatized, especially if death is provoked by violence, natural disasters, or war. This pandemic, like other disasters (wars, tsunami, earthquakes, floods, etc.) has provoked intensive reactions of grief, reactions that could persist for years. The core symptoms of grief are described in the ICD-11 and DSM-5 manuals. The term “complicated grief” in the medical sense refers to a superimposed process that alters grief and modifies its course for the worse. Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is characterized by normal grief symptoms, but these are symptoms that remain too intense for too long of a period. This article is a review of the manifestations and duration of grief in different occasions, and it is based on over 50 published papers, and discoveries in the Medline and Psych-Net databases. Commonly described reactions to grief are: shock, disbelief or denial, a high level of anxiety, distress, anger, sadness, insomnia, and a loss of appetite. As predictors for a high/slow decreasing trajectory of grief process are: female gender, reported symptoms of depression before the traumatic event, and higher scores on avoidance. However, grief is transient, even as we are is in the midst of its clutches. People should expect to fluctuate between moments of sadness and mourning, and moments of acceptance, or even happiness for being alive. Researchers suppose that when a crisis passes; most people will be able to bounce back and move on with their lives.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grief: Aetiology, Symptoms and Management

Pop‐Jordanova

2021

Prilozi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For most Chinese parents, the only child carries their hope for the future, represents the continuation of their bloodline, and is their primary caregiver when they are old. Losing the only child may mean losing all of these, which may be too difficult for parents to bear (Xu et al, 2020 ). Therefore, emotional pain and numbness may lead to other cognitive or behavioural symptoms, and other symptoms may in turn cause shidu parents’ emotional pain and numbness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, network researchers have tried to identify influential symptoms that are most strongly interconnected with other symptoms. Social isolation is common for shidu parents (Xu et al, 2020 ). Inability to trust others may exacerbate shidu parents’ social isolation, which has a significant impact on mental health, sleep disturbance, as well as the quality of life (Choi, Irwin, & Cho, 2015 ; Cornwell & Waite, 2009 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the previous ‘One-Child Policy’, China has the largest population of ‘only-child-death’ parents (Zhang et al, 2020 ). A unique cohort of these parents who have lost their only child and are over 49 years at present and have no living biological or adopted child are referred to as ‘shidu parents (meaning of losing the only child in Mandarin)’ in China (Shi et al, 2019 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ). Alarmingly, the number of shidu parents exceeded 1.5 million in 2015 and is expected to reach around 4.5 million by 2050 in China (Wang, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Network analysis of PGD, PTSD and insomnia symptoms in Chinese shidu parents with PGD

Xie

Zhou

et al. 2022

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Chinese shidu parents (bereaved parents over the age of 49 who have lost their only child) are potentially at a high risk of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and insomnia. Objective The current study aimed to estimate three network models in 310 shidu parents who met the ICD-11 criteria for PGD: (1) a PGD network to identify central symptoms; (2) a comorbidity network to explore bridge symptoms between PGD and PTSD; (3) a comorbidity network to examine the associations between PGD and insomnia symptoms. Methods The R-packages bootnet, qgraph and networktools were used to investigate the structure of network models and centrality indices of symptoms. In addition, robustness and significance analyses for the edge weights and the order of centrality were performed. Results Emotional pain and numbness emerged as the most central symptoms in the PGD network. In the PGD-PTSD comorbidity network, the highest bridge strength symptoms were inability to trust others (PGD) and feeling upset (PTSD). Inability to trust others (PGD), avoidance (PGD), and impairment of life quality (insomnia) were possible bridge symptoms connecting PGD and insomnia. Conclusions Reducing emotional pain and numbness may be a viable target in PGD interventions for shidu parents. Additionally, findings suggest that future studies could examine the role of inability to trust others and avoidance in PGD comorbidities. HIGHLIGHTS • Emotional pain and numbness were the most influential symptoms in shidu parents with PGD. The role of PGD symptoms of inability to trust others and avoidance in the comorbidities of PGD with PTSD and insomnia might be worthy of further study

show abstract

“…Losing an only child may be most difficult, especially in a society where continuing family bloodlines is an obligation, and children are the primary providers of care for ageing parents (Xu et al, 2020; Zhang & Jia, 2018; Zheng & Lawson, 2015). Such bereaved parents are named shidu parents in China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grief‐related beliefs in shidu parents with and without prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Typical Beliefs Questionnaire

Wen

Skritskaya

et al. 2021

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Typical Beliefs Questionnaire (TBQ) assesses common grief-related cognitions, which demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in a treatment-seeking sample with prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Chinese shidu parents (bereaved parents over the age of 49 who have lost their only child) are at a high risk of PGD. The current study aimed to examine psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the TBQ (TBQ-C) in a community sample of shidu parents with and without PGD, to compare this to the original validation clinical sample in the United States bereaved of any close relationship and to consider its use as a clinical tool. We examined the rate of positive endorsement, factor structure, internal consistency and validity of the TBQ-C in 310 community-based shidu parents (including 102 who met the criteria for PGD). Results showed that the rate of positive endorsement for each item ranged from 7.2% to 48.6% among non-PGD participants and from 20.6% to 92.2% among PGD participants. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original fivefactor structure fit both the non-PGD and PGD shidu parents. The TBQ-C showed acceptable internal consistency and satisfactory convergent and concurrent validity in both groups. It had good discriminant validity and can be helpful in distinguishing shidu parents with and without PGD. The TBQ-C can be used to investigate common grief-related beliefs that may be problematic for both shidu parents with and without PGD.

show abstract

Grief and Posttraumatic Growth Among Chinese Bereaved Parents Who Lost Their Only Child: The Moderating Role of Interpersonal Loss

Cited by 13 publications

References 78 publications

Grief: Aetiology, Symptoms and Management

Grief: Aetiology, Symptoms and Management

Network analysis of PGD, PTSD and insomnia symptoms in Chinese shidu parents with PGD

Grief‐related beliefs in shidu parents with and without prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Typical Beliefs Questionnaire

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About