Spiritual Distress and Depression in Bereavement: A Meaning-Oriented Contribution

One key focus of a meaning reconstruction model of bereavement concerns spiritual meanings attributed to the death, whether consoling or troubling. Specifically, previous studies in our research program suggest that religiously inclined violent death survivors are at risk for elevated levels of both bereavement distress and complicated spiritual grief, a crisis of faith following loss that refers to the erosion of the mourner’s relationship to God and/or the religious community. However, more research is needed to understand the convergence of depression and spiritual struggle in the context of violent and natural loss. In this study of a diverse sample of 59 American Christians bereaved less than 5 years, we sought to: (1) determine if individuals bereaved by homicide, suicide or fatal accident differed from those bereaved by natural causes in their levels of depression and spiritual coping; (2) investigate the relation between the latter constructs; and (3) ascertain if cause of death mediates the effect of religious coping on depression. We found that: (a) violently bereaved individuals endorsed more negative religious coping, and (b) depression was associated with greater spiritual struggle, particularly a sense of disrupted relationship with God. Contrary to expectations, positive religious coping was unrelated to post-loss depression, and cause of death did not mediate the relationship between spiritual coping and depressive symptomatology. A clinical case study concludes the article, illustrating the interweaving of spiritual and psychological distress in tragic bereavement, and their implications for a meaning-oriented grief therapy.     

The Doubting Process: A Longitudinal Study of the Precipitants and Consequences of Religious Doubt in Older Adults

Religious doubt arises from a process in which there is a precipitant, the experience of doubt, a coping response, and a health-related outcome. We assess whether social factors precipitate doubt and the coping responses that are invoked to deal with doubt. We evaluate whether these coping responses are, in turn, associated with health. Over time, people who encounter more negative interaction with fellow congregants have more doubts about religion, whereas more spiritual support and greater involvement in prayer groups are associated with less religious doubt. People who encounter more negative interaction are more likely to suppress religious doubts, but people who attend Bible study groups are more likely to seek spiritual growth when faced with doubt. Suppressing religious doubt is associated with less favorable health, whereas seeking spiritual growth has no significant effect.     

The relationship between spiritual distress, PTSD and depression in Vietnam combat veterans

Presents empirical data showing the relationship between combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and spiritual distress. Uses spiritual injury scale to measure distress; scale measures guilt, anger or resentment, sadness/grief, lack of meaning, feeling God/life has treated one unfairly, religious doubt, and fear of death. Shows high association between spiritual injuries and both PTSD and depression. Also finds inverse relationship between intrinsic religious faith and these two diagnostic categories. An inverse relationship also exists between religious faith as measured by regular worship with a faith community and both depression and PTSD.     

Unexpected death,religious coping and conjugal bereavement outcomes in Africa (Togo)

This pioneering study in sub-Saharan African context examined the role played by religious strategies (religious coping, religious community support (RCS)) in the conjugal bereavement process and its outcomes depending on the expected or unexpected death. Based on cross-sectional approach, the study targeted Togolese bereaved spouses (N?=?162). The mean period of mourning was 112.52 months (SD?=?94.72). The results of a hierarchical regression revealed that RCS was positively associated with grief symptoms when the death was expected and, unsurprisingly, the negative religious coping predicted grief symptoms when the death was sudden and unexpected. Religious strategies would play a threefold role: providing refuge and comfort, regulating the bereavement distress and serving resources to give meaning to the loss of the beloved. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Forgivingness: Similarities and Differences Between Buddhists and Christians Living in China

Mourners often rely on faith following loss, but not all find spirituality comforting. Some grievers engage in negative religious coping (NRC), signaled by behaviors and thoughts such as anger toward God or their faith community, feeling spiritually abandoned, or questioning God's power. Our longitudinal study of 46 African American homicide survivors explored the relation of both positive religious coping (PRC) and NRC to complicated grief (CG) and investigated whether religious coping more strongly predicted psychological distress or vice versa. Results indicated that NRC was associated with CG, whereas PRC was substantially unrelated to bereavement outcome. Significantly, CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle 6 months later, both in terms of CG and NRC composite scores and at the individual-item level. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.     

Religious Beliefs Affect Grieving After Pregnancy Loss

Religious beliefs and practices may aid in coping with bereavement and grief after pregnancy loss. Data from 103 women enrolled in the original Lehigh Valley Perinatal Loss Project, and who were followed-up for at least 1 year, were evaluated for the impact of initial religious practices and beliefs on the course and severity of grief. Religious practices corresponding to standard scales of religiosity and agreement with specific beliefs were rated by the women on a Likert scale of 1–5. Neither agreement with statements corresponding to extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity or to positive religious coping, nor frequency of religious service attendance was predictive of follow-up scores on the Perinatal Grief Scale. Religious struggle, agreement with statements classified as negative religious coping, and continued attachment to the baby were all associated with more severe grief.     

Practitioners' accounts of religious and spiritual dimensions in bereavement therapy

This study explores religious and spiritual dimensions in bereavement therapy through in-depth qualitative interviews with 12 therapists for whom bereavement work constituted a major part of their therapeutic role. Information was gathered on the conceptualization of religious and spiritual issues, the perceived influence of therapists' beliefs on their practice and the therapeutic processes that occur in work with religious and spiritual issues. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data, examining associations between these areas as well as highlighting the diversity of experiences and viewpoints. The multi-dimensional role of the therapeutic relationship was highlighted by participants as well as the perceived limitations of many theoretical models of therapy and bereavement in working with religious or spiritual issues. Some therapeutic processes were described in terms of the exploration of belief systems that have been challenged by bereavement and the re-creation of personal meaning. Implications for therapeutic practice and further research are discussed.     

Suicide Bereavement and Complicated Grief: Experiential Avoidance as a Mediating Mechanism

In the wake of increased interest in the specific features of suicide bereavement, the current study examines (a) the association between suicide bereavement and complicated grief and (b) the mediating effect of experiential avoidance on the association between suicide bereavement and complicated grief. The tests revealed a significant indirect effect of suicide bereavement on complicated grief through experiential avoidance. This finding suggests that traumatic characteristics of suicide bereavement may inhibit the grieving process by increasing experiential avoidance and emphasizing a cognitive approach for complicated grief of people who have lost their loved one to death by suicide.     

Does Religious Belief Matter for Grief and Death Anxiety? Experimental Philosophy Meets Psychology of Religion

It is commonly reasoned that religious belief moderates death anxiety and aids in coping with loss. However, a philosophical perspective known as meta‐atheism includes the claim that avowed religious believers grieve deaths and experience death anxiety as intensely as avowed atheists. Thus, we report a study comparing religious believers and nonbelievers on measures of death anxiety and grief. We further investigated the relationships between certain religious beliefs (views of God, afterlife belief, religious orientation) and death anxiety, as well as both painful grief reactions and grief‐related growth. We surveyed 101 participants across the United States, ranging in age (19 to 57), education, and ethnicity. Participants avowing some form of religious belief, in comparison to those not, did not demonstrate lower levels of death anxiety. They did, however, display higher levels of a certain type of death acceptance. Additionally, those professing belief reported less grief and greater growth in response to loss. Greater afterlife belief was not associated with less grief; however, it was associated with both greater grief‐related growth and lower death anxiety.     

Religion and emotional compensation: results from a prospective study of widowhood

Based on recent applications of attachment theory to religion, the authors predicted that the loss of a spouse would cause widowed individuals to increase the importance of their religious/spiritual beliefs. This hypothesis was examined using the Changing Lives of Older Couples sample from which preloss measures of religiosity were available for widowed individuals and matched controls. A total of 103 widowed individuals provided follow-up data, including reports of religious beliefs and grief, at 6 months, 24 months, and 48 months after the loss. Results indicated that widowed individuals were more likely than controls to increase their religious/spiritual beliefs. This increase was associated with decreased grief but did not influence other indicators of adjustment such as depression. Finally, insecure individuals were most likely to benefit from increasing the importance of their beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of the potential value of applying psychological theory to the study of religion.     

Bereavement anxieties and health amongst the Australian-Italian Catholic community

This article is based on survey of 269 households in the state of Victoria, Australia. It elicits some useful guidelines for professional caregivers in relation to eight cultural/religious groups including Australian-born Christians and Arab-born Muslims. The focus here is upon the relationships between the Australian Italian community and personal health outcomes during bereavement. The following sub-strata are examined: community differences in relation to grief and loss practices and traditions; the value of religious communal support and counseling; symptomatological differences from psychosocial and educational perspectives; psychopathological/psychiatric symptoms and beliefs and practice concerning the afterlife. Significant differences were revealed between the sexes on such matters as health problems, grief expressions, psychosomatic manifestations, communication with the dead, beliefs in the afterlife and interpretation of the meaning of loss. Differences in these findings will assist professional caregivers who deal with families experiencing personal death loss to broaden their own perspectives on bereavement, offering specific counselling strategies and care-giving interventions.     

The contributions of religious practice,existential certainty,and raising grandchildren to well-being in older adults

ABSTRACT

Religious beliefs and practices are believed to foster well-being across the life course. This study examines whether religious practice, spiritual development, and existential certainty are positively linked to well-being in grandparents (N = 2,503) and whether these factors buffer grandparents from risks associated with raising grandchildren and adjusting to changing roles. Data were collected from individuals attending Protestant churches. Spiritual development and existential certainty were positively associated with well-being. We found no evidence for buffering effects of religious practice on grandparent well-being. Grandparents raising grandchildren reported more challenges in adjusting to changes in roles compared to their peers.     

Neither Bereavement nor Grief: Coping with the Death of a Cherished Person in the Cunda-sutta

Though bereavement and grief have been common human experience throughout recorded history, how bereavement is viewed and grief coped with varies from one philosophical tradition to another. By examining features running throughout the Cunda-sutta, this paper demonstrates a shift from the ordinary conception of bereavement to an insightful understanding of not-bereavement. If one possesses insight into how worldly convention shapes ordinary conceptions of bereavement, then one need not associate bereavement with loss and grief. For ordinary people, grief may be regarded as a natural response to loss. However, in light of the emptiness of bereavement, the emphasis can be shifted from coping with grief to the understanding of not-grief and to the cultivation of mental abilities conducive to moving forward on the right path. By examining the reasoning of neither bereavement nor grief, this paper sheds new light on a rarely acknowledged perspective on coping with the death of a cherished person.     

Cultural Dimensions of Early Pregnancy Loss: Spiritual and Religious Issues

Nearly one in five clinically confirmed pregnancies ends in a loss before 20 weeks (Bardos et al., 2015). Despite the prevalence of miscarriage, many women and partners experience a lack of acknowledgment and support while also encountering complicated concerns related to the intersection of perinatal loss, culture, religious and spiritual issues, medical treatment, their reproductive stories, and grief (Randolph et al., 2015). Counselors working with these clients must address complex cultural considerations. As such, we review key cultural and religious/spiritual issues related to early pregnancy loss and offer recommendations for practice based on the current literature in the context of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (2009) counseling competencies.     

Conceptualizing an HIV Diagnosis Through a Model of Grief and Bereavement

For people living with HIV/AIDS, grief and bereavement typically refer to the loss of life felt in the HIV community. However, changes in HIV treatments allow care providers to view HIV grief in a way that considers physical, social, and emotional loss, as well as a loss of the life they had previously pictured for themselves. Kübler‐Ross's ( 1969 ) model of bereavement is presented as a way to conceptualize clients living with HIV who are dealing with grief and bereavement. In addition, popular bereavement counseling approaches relevant to clients with HIV are discussed, and a case illustration is provided.     

Resilience to loss and chronic grief: a prospective study from preloss to 18-months postloss

The vast majority of bereavement research is conducted after a loss has occurred. Thus, knowledge of the divergent trajectories of grieving or their antecedent predictors is lacking. This study gathered prospective data on 205 individuals several years prior to the death of their spouse and at 6- and 18-months postloss. Five core bereavement patterns were identified: common grief, chronic grief, chronic depression, improvement during bereavement, and resilience. Common grief was relatively infrequent, and the resilient pattern most frequent. The authors tested key hypotheses in the literature pertaining to chronic grief and resilience by identifying the preloss predictors of each pattern. Chronic grief was associated with preloss dependency and resilience with preloss acceptance of death and belief in a just world.     

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.     

“There's a deeper level of meaning as to what suffering's all about”: experiences of religious and spiritual growth following trauma

Some survivors of trauma report experiencing beneficial changes in self-perception, relationships, and philosophy of life, and positive changes in the realm of existential, spiritual, or religious matters. The purpose of the present study was to examine participants’ phenomenological experiences of spiritual and religious posttraumatic growth (PTG). Transcribed data from semi-structured interviews with 10 women, self-identified as Christian, who had experienced spiritual or religious growth following various trauma were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results indicated how religion provided a framework that assisted participants to incorporate life changes, and to find meaning in their suffering. The most salient themes identified in relation to religious and spiritual PTG included: process of spiritual and religious growth, strengthening of religious and spiritual beliefs, and personal and spiritual growth and healing. Participants’ trauma and associated distress prompted a process of questioning and meaning-making that facilitated deeply experienced personal and spiritual growth, and was related to intrinsic religiosity.     

Psychodrama: Rehearsal for Living

Abstract

The current study examined therapist characteristics that are related to the use of spiritual and religious interventions in group therapy and to perceived barriers to attending to spirituality in group therapy among a sample of experienced group therapists. Results demonstrated that greater therapist spirituality was associated with more frequent use of both spiritual and religious interventions, as well as lower perceived barriers to attending to spirituality in group therapy. Religious commitment was only uniquely related to perceived barriers, such that therapists with higher religious commitment actually perceived greater barriers. Training in religion and spirituality and comfort with spiritual discussions was also related to therapists’ use of religious and spiritual interventions and perceived barriers.