Psychological and Religious Coping Strategies of Mothers Bereaved by the Sudden Death of a Child

Anderson, Miriam Joy; Marwit, Samuel J.; Vandenberg, Brian; Chibnall, John T.

doi:10.1080/07481180500236602

Cited by 62 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In terms of the relation between TSL, and NRC and CG, contrary to Anderson et al's [47] study with mothers who had lost a child to homicide or fatal accident (TSL in years, M = 4.5; SD = 2.7), showing that higher grief was associated with less post-loss duration, results of Pearson's correlations in our study showed that with the exception of CG at T1 (r = −0.31, p < 0.05), neither CG nor NRC had a statistically significant association with TSL.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 47%

“…Conversely, in Tarakeshwar, Hansen, Kochman, and Sikkema's [46] study of 252 HIV-positive mourners, they found a significant main effect for PRC-individuals who used more PRC reported higher levels of grief. Anderson, Marwit, Vandenberg, and Chibnall [47] uncovered similar, albeit more complex, results. In their study of 57 mothers who lost a child to homicide, motor vehicle accident, or other fatality, they found that neither NRC nor PRC was statistically significant in relation to grief when assessed alone.…”

Section: Spiritual Copingsupporting

confidence: 58%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Neimeyer

Burke

2011

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both grieving the loss of a loved one and using spirituality or religion as an aid in doing so are common behaviors in the wake of death. This longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors follows up on our earlier study that established the relation between positive and negative religious coping on the one hand and complicated grief (CG) on the other. In the current report, we broadened this focus to determine the relation between religious coping and other bereavement outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, to establish whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa. We also sought to determine if the predictive power of CG in terms of religious coping over time exceeded that of PTSD and depression. Our results suggested a link between negative religious coping (NRC) and all forms of bereavement distress, whereas no such link was found between positive religious coping (PRC) and bereavement outcomes in our final analyses. Significantly, only CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle six months later. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.

show abstract

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 47%

Section: Spiritual Copingsupporting

confidence: 58%

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Neimeyer

Burke

2011

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast, Tarakeshwar, Hansen, Kochman, and Sikkema's [54] study of 252 HIV-positive mourners found that individuals who used more PRC reported higher levels of grief. Anderson, Marwit, Vandenberg, and Chibnall [55] uncovered similar, albeit more complex, results. In their study of 57 mothers who lost a child to sudden, violent death, or other fatality, they found that neither NRC nor PRC was statistically related to grief when assessed alone.…”

Section: Spiritual Copingsupporting

confidence: 58%

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

Burke

Neimeyer

2014

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many mourners turn to their spiritual beliefs and traditions when confronted by the death of a loved one. However, prior studies have either focused primarily on the benefits of faith following loss or studied spiritual struggle outside the context of bereavement. Moreover, scales to measure bereavement-related crises of faith and interventions specifically designed for spiritually inclined, distressed grievers are virtually non-existent. Our program of research, which to date has consisted of working with Christian grievers and is outlined below, elucidates complicated spiritual grief (CSG)-a spiritual crisis following the loss of a loved one. For example, our longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors established the relation between positive religious coping, CSG, and complicated grief (CG), to clarify whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa, with a follow-up study that determined the relation between religious coping and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We replicated and expanded these findings with a diverse sample of 150 grievers to explore the complex relation between CSG, CG, and meaning making in a comparison study of mourners who had experienced traumatic-versus natural death losses. In a companion study, we qualitatively analyzed 84 grievers' narratives and interviewed a 5-member focus group to capture and learn from their firsthand experiences of spiritual distress. To close the gap in terms of CSG assessment, we also developed and validated the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG). Currently, our ongoing CSG investigation extends in several directions: first, to a sample of family members OPEN ACCESSReligions 2014, 5 1088 anticipating the loss of their hospice-eligible loved one in palliative care; and, second, to the development and testing of a writing-intensive intervention for newly bereaved, spiritually inclined grievers.

show abstract

“…Time since death has previously been found to be associated with grief symptoms (Anderson et al, 2005) however its impact in the current study may have been reduced since the sample were drawn from a relatively small time frame (four to five years post-loss).…”

Section: Findings From Previous Research Not Supported In the Presentmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…For bereaved parents, grief has been found to be associated with time since death (Anderson, Marwit, Vandenberg, & Chibnall, 2005;Feigelman, Gorman, & Jordan, 2009;Robinson & Marwit, 2006), emotional coping and avoidance coping (Anderson et al, 2005;Robinson & Marwit, 2006), social support and subsequent stressors (Hazzard, Weston, & Gutterres, 1992) and the sex of the parent, with mothers experiencing higher levels of grief than fathers (Bohannon, 1991;Littlefield & Silverman, 1991). Losing a male child was linked with higher levels of depression (Hazzard et al, 1992;Robinson & Marwit, 2006) as was the death being sudden (Hazzard et al, 1992) or the child being healthy prior to their death (Littlefield & Silverman, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relative importance of avoidance and restoration-oriented stressors for grief and depression in bereaved parents

Harper

O’Connor

O’Carroll

2014

Psychology, Health & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundPrevious research has identified a number of individual risk factors for parental bereavement including the sex of the parent, the sex of the child, avoidance-focussed coping style and time since death. These factors emerged from research where variables were tested univariately and their relative importance is currently unknown. The current research therefore aims to investigate which risk factors are important, multivariately, for the outcomes of grief and depression in parents following the death of their child. MethodPsychosocial measures were completed by 106 bereaved parents four years post-loss recruited from death records in Scotland. The cause of the child's death included long term illness and stillbirths as well as sudden and violent deaths. ResultsIn multivariate regression analyses, depression was predicted by avoidance-focussed coping and the number of restoration-oriented stressors. Grief was predicted by avoidance, restoration stressors and level of continuing bonds. ConclusionThe present study adds to the knowledge about the phenomenon of parental bereavement with participants recruited directly from death records rather than through

show abstract

Psychological and Religious Coping Strategies of Mothers Bereaved by the Sudden Death of a Child

Cited by 62 publications

References 34 publications

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

The relative importance of avoidance and restoration-oriented stressors for grief and depression in bereaved parents

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About