Children's bereavement reactions following death of the father

The war situation compelled a reinvestigation into the characteristics, course, the outcome, and the variety of bereavement reactions in early childhood. In this study, the behaviors and changes reported by the mothers and teachers of 24 normal kibbutz children over a period of 1 to 6 months after bereavement are presented. The findings lead to one clear and central conclusion: The death of a father in war brings about a severe stress situation for the child at both the preschool and the middle-childhood age. The abrupt disequilibrium created by the death itself and the resulting changes in the family place very difficult demands on the adaptation and coping capacities of the child.In this sample of normal children with no special problems before the loss, ample evidence of acute emotional strain along with noticeable grief reactions were found in the early months of bereavement. A marked increase in the number and variety of symptomatic behavior changes testified to the seriousness of the threat to the child's sense of well-being after notification of the death. Ten of the 22 children between the ages of 2 and 10 years reacted to the trauma severely and were so markedly hindered in their daily functioning that psychological help was considered imperative. The disorganizing effect of the trauma of the loss of a father as reflected in this high percentage of disturbance in normal children indicates that without doubt a child who has lost a parent is a child at risk. It is therefore desirable if not imperative that there be more balance in the efforts to help bereaved families.     

“Bearing my fruit into the grave”: experiences of anticipatory grieving and bereavement among Zimbabwean HIV positive women with loss of their only child

This study aimed to explore the bereavement experiences of HIV positive women who had lost their only child. Participants were 10 women living with HIV (age range?=?24–35 years) and with loss of their only child. Data on experiences of anticipatory grief and bereavement among HIV positive women were collected over a period of six months. The data were analysed thematically. Findings suggest the women to have traumatic memories of their deceased children and also from the marital disharmony which followed the loss. The participants reported to have questioned their womanhood since they did not have any surviving child and dreaded the fact that they would die childless. Women also reported a sense of persona worthlessness following the death of the child and lived in fear and uncertainty of the future concerning their own mortality.     

Temporary and Long-Term Consequences of Bereavement on Happiness

In this article, we examine the temporary and long-term consequences of the death of a parent or child on happiness. According to set-point theory external conditions are expected to only have a short-term or limited influence on happiness. This directly contradicts the basic assumption of affective theories on happiness, which states that major life-events have a lasting influence on well-being. Moreover, we test whether the association between bereavement and happiness is equally strong across the life course. To test our hypotheses we make use of the fourth wave of the European Values Study. Our research findings demonstrate that people who lost their father, mother or child are more likely to feel unhappy than people without this experience. Ten years after the death of a parent or child we still find a significant difference in happiness between people who have and have not experienced this loss. The assumption of set-point theory, that major life evens only have a temporary impact on SWB, is not supported by our data. Moreover, the association between bereavement and SWB strongly differs across the life-course. We might even conclude that the age at which the loss occurred is more decisive for the strength of the association between bereavement and SWB than the duration of the loss.     

Parental Mourning and Children's Behavior

This article alerts professionals to sibling death as a possible reason for behaviors exhibited by young clients. Aside from their own grief, children are affected by parental mourning over a child's death and accompanying changes in the family environment. Children show their distress in a variety of behaviors, some of which appear to be unrelated to the loss. Four areas of concern are presented with case illustrations: cognitive distortions, reactions to parents' distress and preoccupation with the loss, being a replacement child, and effects of parents' failure to work through their grief. Suggestions for helping children and parents include using a genogram for identifying loss, helping the family talk about the death, and providing a support group for children.     

Father‐Involvement in a Refugee Sample: Relations between Posttraumatic Stress and Caregiving

Despite increased attention to the role of fathers within families, there is still a dearth of studies on the impact of trauma on father‐involvement. This study investigates the quantity of father‐involvement and the influence of posttraumatic stress on the quality of involvement in a refugee and asylum seeker population. Eighty refugees and asylum seekers and their young children (aged 18–42 months) were recruited. Measures included assessment of parental trauma (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire), quantity and quality of involvement (quantity of caregiving and Emotional Availability Scales), and perception of the father–child relationship (interview). The results show that fathers were less involved in caregiving tasks and play activities than mothers. No parental gender differences were found on each of the Emotional Availability Scales. Traumatic stress symptoms negatively affected the perception and the actual quality of parent–child interaction (sensitivity, structuring, nonhostility). Nevertheless, almost all fathers described their relationship with their child as good and their child as very important to them. As the quality of father‐involvement is of importance to the development of the child, traumatized fathers are as much in need of clinical intervention as mothers. Despite the impact of posttraumatic stress, refugee fathers clearly are involved in the lives of their children. Mechanisms such as a deliberate withdrawal when stressed and compensation might enable affected fathers to step into the interaction when needed, raise the quality of involvement with their child, and diminish the negative impact of stress resulting from trauma and migration.     

Promoting Meaning-Making to Help our Patients Grieve: An Exemplar for Genetic Counselors and Other Health Care Professionals

Genetic counselors and other health professionals frequently meet with patients who are grieving a loss. It is thus helpful for medical professionals to be familiar with approaches to bereavement counseling. Grief theory has evolved over the last few decades, from primarily stage theories of grief such as Kübler-Ross’s “five stages of grief” to frameworks that promote more complex and long-term ways to cope with a loss. Herein I present one recent grief theory – meaning-making - and describe how it can be applied to help parents of children with disabilities grieve the loss of the child that they expected. In particular, I describe a scenario that many genetic counselors face - meeting with the parents of a child with Down syndrome. I outline the research done on the reactions, grief and coping experienced by parents in this circumstance, and I present suggestions for encouraging healthy coping and adjustment for parents, based on the meaning-making perspective. The meaning-making theory can also be applied to many of the other losses faced by genetic counseling patients.     

Behavioral Problems in Sons of Incarcerated or Otherwise Absent Fathers: The Issue of Separation

The decade of the 1980s witnessed more than a doubling in the number of incarcerated individuals. Little is known about the psychological reactions of children whose parents are incarcerated, although a variety of behavioral disorders apparently related to separation, stigma, and deception of the child has been reported. The possibility of aggressive or antisocial behavior emerging in sons of incarcerated fathers has been mentioned as of particular concern in some reports. This article discusses salient themes in the literature on the reactions of children to parental incarceration, with an emphasis on boys' reactions to incarceration of their fathers. It critiques this literature and compares the findings with literature on the effects of separation in father absence related to other causes (for example, divorce, death, military service). Behavioral or emotional disorder associated with paternal incarceration probably is related mainly to associated factors such as the meaning of the incarceration to the child, the remaining caretaker's psychological characteristics and psychopathology, the parenting relationship between the caretaker and the child, and the coping capacities and resources of the family, rather than to the separation itself. Recommendations for further research in this increasingly important field are provided.     

Mothers continuing bonds and ambivalence to personal mortality after the death of their child--an interpretative phenomenological analysis

The main objective of this study was to identify how bereaved mothers describe their coping strategies in their own words. The literature on parental bereavement is sparse, and the present study aims to add to existing knowledge by eliciting the mothers' experiences covering a wide range of child ages including infants, younger children and adults. Semi-structured interviews were held with 13 bereaved mothers in the UK. Causes of death include accident, illness and suicide. The methodological approach was interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). This article reports two inter-related recurrent themes: (1) Continuing the bond with the deceased child and (2) Ambivalence to personal mortality. Participants reported that the relationship with their child was continued in a variety of ways, from tending to the grave and the child's remains, through linking objects or by establishing a symbolic representation of the child within their daily lives. All mothers talked openly about their own mortality, either demonstrating ambivalence about their own death, or expressing clear suicidal ideation. Death was seen as a release from living with the pain of loss. The presence of surviving siblings appeared to moderate suicidal ideation, but mothers expressed concerns about their ability to care adequately for other family members during times of intense grief.     

失独父母创伤后应激障碍的症状结构、特征及预测因素

为考察我国失独父母创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)的症状特征及预测因素, 采用失独父母自身和孩子有关的基本信息问卷, 创伤后应激检查量表平民版(PCL-C), 对中国的463名失独父母进行调查。结果表明: (1)采用验证性因素分析验证了包括闯入、回避性、麻木性、精神痛苦性唤起和焦虑性唤起等5个因子的PTSD精神痛苦性唤起模型在中国失独父母中的适用性。(2)根据DSM-IV的诊断标准进行筛查, 71.92%的失独父母为PTSD阳性, 其中PTSD的回避、闯入、精神痛苦性唤起、情感麻木、焦虑性唤起因子阳性率依次增高。(3)失独父母的年龄、孩子的离世时长与PTSD症状具有显著的相关性; 失独父母的PTSD症状得分在自身性别、家庭所在地及家庭收入状况上存在显著差异; 将所有因素纳入回归方程后发现: 最能预测失独父母PTSD症状的因素包括: 性别、家庭所在地、年龄。     

Parental grief following the death of an infant—a follow-up over one year

The course of parental bereavement during the first year following an infant's death was investigated. Also, the differences in mothers' and fathers' reactions, the differences according to the mothers' occupational role, and the similarities in couples' reactions were studied. From a total sample of 59 families, 13 families answered their questionnaires at all three time points (1, 6 and 13 months), 22 families responded at two time points, and 37 families responded at some point following the loss. Measures relating to anxiety, depression, bodily discomfort, general well being and impact of event were used at the three time points. The results showed that grief, as measured by the different inventories, decreased over time. The decrease was most evident from 6 to 13 months, and most prominent in women. A considerable number of the parents were still actively dealing with the loss all through the first year of bereavement. In most couples the mother reported most distress. Mothers were significantly more depressed than fathers at all time points, and mothers also had significantly higher anxiety and lower general health at 1 and 13 months, and intrusive scores of 1 and 6 months. Women at home evidenced more grief at all three time points than women employed outside the home. A high or low score in one spouse was more strongly correlated with a similar score in the other at 1 and 13 months, than at 6 months. The implications for counselling of parents, with special emphasis on the employment situation of the mother, is emphasized.     

Reconsidering Psychoanalytic Notions of Paternal and Maternal Roles in Situations of Father-Absence

Traditional psychoanalytic literature describes the father as occupying a critical role in child development. The father’s loss or absence is seen as hindering development from early infancy throughout childhood and even into adulthood. Father absence is defined as any situation where the father is psychologically disconnected from his children, whether or not he is currently living in the same home. Dramatic shifts have occurred in the American family over the past several decades, which have resulted in changes for both the father and mother’s role in child development. With the increasing divorce rate and rise in single parenthood, father-absence has become common, and a multiplicity of family forms has emerged. However, psychoanalytic ideas regarding maternal and paternal roles have not been modified to encompass these changing family forms. Research is beginning to show that children can develop in families that are not the traditional mother-father unit. Two case examples are provided to examine various factors related to unresolved separation-individuation issues, and how psychoanalytic ideas regarding the paternal and maternal functions can be used in either a modified or unmodified manner in organizing the clinical material.     

MY FATHER,MYSELF

This essay presents material from the second analysis of an offspring of two Holocaust survivors, each of whom lost a child during the war. The first analysis (Kogan 2003 ) focused primarily on the patient's relationship with her mother. This second analysis revolves around the elaboration of the complex and painful father–daughter relationship, centering on the events surrounding the death of the patient's father. The discussion includes an exploration of the father's deferred action on account of his Holocaust trauma, which he passed on to the next generation; the break in the idealized paternal representation; and the daughter's identification with her father's disavowed aggressive aspects. It also examines some of the unique transference and countertransference problems that arose, mainly because patient and analyst belonged to the same traumatized large group.     

Constructions of Mexican American family grief after the death of a child: an exploratory study

Using a collective case study ethnographic approach, nine individuals comprising three Mexican American families were interviewed about their family bereavement experiences after the death of a child. All families were Catholic, had surviving siblings, and had had three or more years to grieve their loss when interviewed. The deceased children ranged in age from 3 to 14, and all experienced sudden, traumatic, nonsuicide deaths. To provide a broader, contextual picture of their grief experiences, four individuals who supported these family members after the loss were also interviewed. Unique grief experiences were identified, and eight common themes emerged, reflecting the ways in which family members maintained their bond to the deceased: dreams, storytelling, keepsakes, sense of presence, faith-based connections, proximity connections, ongoing rituals, and pictorial remembrances. The cultural implications of family bereavement are highlighted.     

Child mortality and parental grief: An evolutionary analysis

Across most of human history, infant and child mortality rates were very high, suggesting the death of a child was a challenge faced by many ancestral parents. Prolonged grief likely harmed grievers’ fitness, yet grief is ubiquitous and often protracted, thereby presenting a puzzle for evolutionary arguments. We integrate existing theories of grief with patterns of parental bereavement to examine how human psychology has been shaped to respond to the death of a child. We contend that variation in life history strategy may explain the relative difficulty with which individuals recover from losing a child. We propose that the same physiological mechanisms underlying detachment and grief during dissolved romantic relationships may also underlie the intensity of parental attachment and bereavement. This theoretical review thus integrates evolutionary theory with extant grief research to provide a functional analysis of the immense suffering associated with the loss of a child.     

FATHER–CHILD INTERACTIONS AT 3 MONTHS AND 24 MONTHS: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHILDREN'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AT 24 MONTHS

The quality of father–child interactions has become a focus of increasing research in the field of child development. We examined the potential contribution of father–child interactions at both 3 months and 24 months to children's cognitive development at 24 months. Observational measures of father–child interactions at 3 and 24 months were used to assess the quality of fathers’ parenting (n = 192). At 24 months, the Mental Developmental Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition (N. Bayley, 1993 ) measured cognitive functioning. The association between interactions and cognitive development was examined using multiple linear regression analyses, adjusting for paternal age, education and depression, infant age, and maternal sensitivity. Children whose fathers displayed more withdrawn and depressive behaviors in father–infant interactions at 3 months scored lower on the MDI at 24 months. At 24 months, children whose fathers were more engaged and sensitive as well as those whose fathers were less controlling in their interactions scored higher on the MDI. These findings were independent of the effects of maternal sensitivity. Results indicate that father–child interactions, even from a very young age (i.e., 3 months) may influence children's cognitive development. They highlight the potential significance of interventions to promote positive parenting by fathers and policies that encourage fathers to spend more time with their young children.     

Traumatic Loss: Conceptual and Empirical Links Between Trauma and Bereavement

Abstract

This article focuses on conceptual issues and empirical studies regarding the topic of traumatic loss (i.e., loss that occurs suddenly and under violent circumstances) as a method for linking the field of trauma, and that of grief and bereavement. Several definitions of trauma are presented that include the concept of loss, and additional concepts are suggested that may be helpful in thinking about the two areas together. Also, modes of death associated with poor recovery are noted, and it is argued that these modes are those that make a bereavement more “traumatic”. Some empirical studies on the psychological outcomes associated with traumatic loss are reviewed, and preliminary findings from a new study of traumatically bereaved women are briefly presented     

Effects of attachment bereavement and pre-event conditions on subsequent depressive symptoms in older adults

A sample of 1,411 older adults (age 55+) who had been interviewed both prior to and after bereavement were studied, allowing for pre-event controls. Those who had lost a parent, spouse, or child had the strongest depressive reactions, as predicted by an attachment-bonding hypothesis; however, material losses were also related to depression. Although bereavement/loss events were clearly related to subsequent depression even after pre-event depression, resources, and events were controlled, certain pre-event characteristics were predictive of the bereavement/loss events, including prior undesirable events, age, and urban/rural residency. A further analysis of 1,007 persons with two post-event interviews (at 6-month to 1-year follow-up) revealed an initial depressive reaction to a bereavement/loss event, which then dissipated completely within 1 year's time. Generally, bereavement appeared to have limited etiologic importance.     

Predicting Grief Symptomatology among the Suddenly Bereaved

Social scientists have long been interested in the study of grief and bereavement, but only recently has research focused on the aftereffects of sudden loss. Theory and research alike suggest that grief is multidimensional and that specific grief reactions have a unique set of predictors. The purpose of this study is to examine the relative contribution of risk factors in explaining variations in specific grief reactions following a sudden death. Data for this study come from medical examiners' reports and mail-back surveys of survivors of sudden loss from suicide or accident. The results indicate that several characteristics of the survivor, mode of death, and social support are important determinants of grief symptomatology. This research concludes by directing future theoretical and empirical endeavors to examine more fully the role of relational factors in influencing grief experiences following bereavement.     

Groups for children traumatically bereaved by the attacks of September 11, 2001

The article reviews the use of debriefing and support groups for children who experienced the deaths of family members in the traumatic events of September 11, 2001. An overview of children's normal age-related responses to bereavement and of the special circumstances of trauma and grief provides the foundation for understanding the unique family and community stressors of 9/11 that impacted the children and group leaders. Stress-reduction exercises suitable for use with traumatized children in bereavement groups are presented together with specific drawing and written activities to encourage the processing of feelings.     

Psychic trauma and traumatic object loss

Psychoanalysis began with the concept of psychic trauma, which was subsequently not clearly differentiated from traumatic object loss or from unconscious conflict and fantasy. Psychic trauma is investigated in relation to unconscious conflict, with and without concurrent object loss. The syndromes of PTSD, uncomplicated by object loss, of traumatic bereavement, and of relatively nontraumatic bereavement, though often interwoven and inseparable, are all different. The significance of the loss, sociocultural factors, and group process influence individual responses to trauma and traumatic bereavement. There are specific neurobiological and psychological sequelae of traumatic experience. Clinical applications are noted.