Post-Homicide Reactions: Grief, Mourning and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following a Drunk Driving Fatality

Abstract

This article examines the impact of gender, religious beliefs, subjective health status, individuals' past experience with death, social support, and time since the death on the extent of mourning, the extent of grieving, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. It is proposed that the mode of death complicates the nature and course of bereavement after the death of a primary family member in a drunk driving collision. The unnecessary and violent nature of the death of drunk driving victims adds to the depth and extent of the psychological response to trauma. It is proposed that the models of grief utilized to conceptualize the grieving process are inadequate as a sole measure of the response of this type of death. Therefore, the inclusion of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder was provided for a more comprehensive understanding of this type of grief response. Survey data were collected on 171 primary family members of drunk driving victims (spouses, parents, siblings, or children) randomly selected from support groups and social service agencies throughout Texas. Results provide a greater understanding of the factor influencing the responses of the surviving family members after a drunk driving fatality and demonstrate that the grief and PTSD response share common predictors.

Family and social networks after bereavement: experiences of support, change and isolation

“…Further, those in the bereaved sample were either native English speakers or highly competent in English, meaning that the experiences of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds might not be represented adequately in the data. Samples of other research projects on the psychosocial outcomes of crash fatalities have been drawn either from activist groups (e.g., Federation of European Road Traffic Victims, 1993Victims, , 1995Lord, 1987;Tehrani, 2004), or mutual-help groups (e.g., Spooren et al, 2000Spooren et al, -2001Sprang & McNeil, 1998), or the wider community (e.g., Lehman et al, 1989;Shanfield & Swain, 1984). Sampling from four sources (a mutual-help group, an activist group, community newspapers, and snowballing from informants) reduced the likelihood that the sample, and therefore the data, is prejudiced, and thus confidence in a relatively representative sample is high.…”

A systematic review of studies describing the influence of informal social support on psychological wellbeing in people bereaved by sudden or violent causes of death

“…The similar constructs of grief, mourning, and extent of grief difficulties, were each significantly crosssectionally associated with social support in two separate exploratory studies [36,44], both with a low risk of bias.…”

“…Four other studies [34,36,38,41] found a positive association between social support and PTSD. Two of these studies [34,38,41] had a medium risk of bias and one [36] had a low risk.…”

Religion and Spirituality in Adjustment Following Bereavement: An Integrative Review

“…A recent prospective, longitudinal study of primary caregivers who lost a family member to cancer found that a composite measure of religious beliefs and activities was related to less Religion and Spirituality in Adjustment 715 depression 13 months post-loss, controlling for baseline depression, age, caregiver burden, and restriction on activities (Fenix et al, 2006). Similarly, in a study of adults who had lost a family member to a drunk driving accident, despite a wide range in time post-loss (one month to over five years), religious beliefs and behaviors were related to less mourning post-loss and current grieving and to fewer PTSD symptoms, even when controlling for social support, subjective health status, gender, race, and marital status (Sprang & McNeil, 1998).…”