War-Related Loss of One's Father and Persistent Depressive Reactions in Early Adolescents

Abstract

Her professional interests include traumatic psychology, especially research related to loss and bereavement issues, as well as mental health and school psychology.

When hope and grief intersect: Rates and risks of prolonged grief disorder among bereaved individuals and relatives of disappeared persons in Colombia

“…However, in contrast to our initial hypothesis that participants with a disappeared significant other would experience more severe mental health distress than bereaved participants, we found no differences between the two groups in either prevalence rates or symptom severity of PTSD, depression, or PGD. A possible reason for this inconsistency with previous findings is that relatives of disappeared persons in other studies also reported significantly more exposure to traumatic events as well as a more stressful current living situation than did bereaved persons (Powell et al, 2010;Zvizdic and Butollo, 2001), which may have contributed to their more impaired mental health. Another potential reason is that it is impossible to detect a significant additive effect of the disappearance of a significant other within the highly traumatized and psychologically distressed sample of the present study.…”

“…Quirk and Casco (1994) interviewed Honduran families in the aftermath of the forced disappearance of a family member and found them to experience higher levels of psychological and physiological distress than families who had lost a family member to accident or illness or than families who had not lost a family member in the last 10 years. In a study on the differential effects of parental loss due to war, early adolescents whose fathers were missing expressed significantly higher levels of depression than did those whose fathers were killed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Zvizdic and Butollo, 2001).…”

Capacity building in trauma therapy and trauma research in Bosnia‐Herzegovina

“…Disappearance of the father seems to have the most devastating effect, especially on boys. 8 A consecutive study was conducted with forty women, whose husbands were missing. Under group conditions (four groups of ten women each), "talking about" the missing husband was compared to "talking to" the missing husband, in dialogue work using the Gestalt therapy empty chair method.…”

Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychopathology in relatives of missing persons: study protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

“…To the best of our knowledge, this hypothesis was tested in only four quantitative studies [3, 5, 6, 17] and was confirmed in two of them [5, 6]. For example, a study among women with unconfirmed and confirmed loss of their husband in a war-related context showed that the former group was more at risk to experience severe MDD symptoms compared to the latter group [5].…”

“…For example, a study among women with unconfirmed and confirmed loss of their husband in a war-related context showed that the former group was more at risk to experience severe MDD symptoms compared to the latter group [5]. In contrast, two other studies did not show significant differences in the severity of symptoms of psychopathology [3, 17]. For example, relatives of Colombians who had disappeared or died in an armed conflict reported similar levels of PCBD, MDD, and PTSD symptoms [3].…”