Bereaved Parents' Perspectives on Informal Social Support: “What Worked for You?”

This study identified and explored the informal social supports that bereaved parents found helpful following the death of their primary school-aged child. Ten participants were interviewed using a semistructured interview schedule. Data were transcribed and analyzed using content and thematic analysis. Results indicate the existence of novel informal supports that enrich contemporary literature. Nine common characteristics of helpful support emerged from the analysis; the specifics of each depended on congruence with parents' unique framework of meaning. Parents also identified five ways to strengthen informal social support. Implications for health promotion research and practice in parental bereavement are discussed.     

Daily hassles,marital functioning and psychological distress among community-dwelling older couples

ObjectivesThis study attempts to examine the association between stress induced by daily hassles, marital functioning and psychological distress among a sample of older couples living at home without assisted living facilities. Moreover, the study looks to assess the moderator role of marital functioning on the association between stress and psychological distress.MethodsThe study included a representative sample of 508 older couples living at home where at least one spouse was aged 65 years or older. To take into account of the non-independence of the data, dyadic analyses were conducted.ResultsFor men, marital functioning and stress induced by daily hassles explained the variance of psychological distress 4.71% and 2.56% respectively. For women, these variables explained 10.96% and 2.43% respectively of this variance. Results found also that marital functioning can play a protective role between the association of stress and psychological distress among men, but not for women. Men with lower marital functioning present a significant higher level of psychological distress when they present stress than those who do not have stress. For those with high marital functioning, no significant differences have been found on psychological distress between those groups.ConclusionStress induced by daily hassles and marital functioning are significantly related to psychological distress among older people, and, for men, marital functioning can play a protective role in the association between those variables.     

Attachment to God,depression and loss in late life: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

Prior research shows that being anxiously and avoidantly attached to God is associated with psychologically problematic outcomes including depressive feelings. However, a clear understanding of how these insecure attachments to God are associated with depressive feelings is still missing. Therefore, a longitudinal study among 329 nursing home residents aged 65–99 was set up to investigate the prospective relation between anxious and avoidant attachment to God and the experience of depressive feelings, as well as whether this relation is moderated by a loss experience. That is, the loss of close relatives can be particularly stressful in late life, challenging existing attachment relationships and placing older adults at risk for depression. Results confirm that insecure attachments to God are distinctly related to depressive feelings, but that this relation is not moderated by a loss experience. Our results also show that depressive feelings predicts attachment to God, instead of the other way around.     

How self-enhancers adapt well to loss: the mediational role of loneliness and social functioning

Objective: The tendency toward unrealistically optimistic self-serving biases, known as trait self-enhancement, has been associated with both adaptive benefits and negative social consequences. This study explored these potential benefits and costs in the context of conjugal bereavement. Method: The study included 94 individuals who had experienced the death of a spouse 1.5–3.0 years prior. The sample (62 female, 32 male) ranged in age from 37 to 60 (M = 51.45, SD = 6.08). To examine benefits, we used relatively objective measures of overall adjustment: structured clinical interviews and ratings from participants’ close friends and relatives. To examine social adjustment, we examined friends’/relatives’ ratings of the quality of social interactions and the possible mediating roles of perceived loneliness and friend/relative ratings. Results: Trait self-enhancement was uniformly associated with positive adjustment: relatively lower symptom totals, and friend/relative ratings of both overall better adjustment and better social adjustment. Self-enhancers’ low loneliness was found to mediate reduced symptoms. Also, friends’/relatives’ ratings of social functioning appeared to mediate self-enhancers’ reduced loneliness. Conclusions: These findings provide further empirical data to challenge the longstanding assumption that inaccurate self-perception is inherently maladaptive. Authentic benefits may result from mistaken perceptions of oneself by influencing the experience of loneliness and how one is seen by close friends/relatives. Self-enhancement may be an adaptation that provides clinically relevant advantages.     

DSM‐5 and Bereavement: The Loss of Normal Grief?

The mood disorder work group has proposed to eliminate the bereavement exclusion criterion from the diagnosis of major depression in the 5th edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (2012) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The proposal would break tradition with the long‐held distinction between depression and normal bereavement. This article reviews the development of the bereavement exclusion, discusses evidence for and against the proposal, and offers some relevant implications for counselors in light of the research on depression and bereavement.     

A Randomized Open Trial Assessing the Feasibility of Behavioral Activation for Pathological Grief Responding

This study investigated the feasibility of using behavioral activation to treat enduring postbereavement mental health difficulties using a two-arm, multiple baseline design comparing an immediate start group to a delayed start group at baseline, 12-, 24-, and 36-weeks postrandomization. Participants received 12–14 sessions of behavioral activation within a 12-week intervention period starting immediately after the first assessment or after 12 weeks for the delayed start group. Prolonged grief, posttraumatic stress, and depression symptoms were assessed as outcomes. Compared with no treatment, behavioral activation was associated with large reductions in prolonged, complicated, or traumatic grief; posttraumatic stress disorder; and depression symptoms in the intent-to-treat analyses. Seventy percent of the completer sample at posttreatment and 75 percent at follow-up responded to treatment with 45 percent at posttreatment and 40 percent at follow-up being classified as evidencing high-end state functioning at 12-week follow-up.     

Spouse and Family Functioning Before and After a Marine’s Suicide: Comparisons to Deaths by Accident and in Combat

The impact of service member suicides on families is not well understood. Civilian studies have demonstrated that family survivors of suicide deaths experience complicated grief, feel guilt and shame, and often do not receive sufficient social support. In this exploratory study, spouse survivors of Marines who died by suicide (N = 17), accident (N = 19), and in combat (N = 34) retrospectively reported on their immediate pre- and postmortem and current personal and family functioning. Nonparametric analyses revealed that several between-group differences existed. Observation of the means suggested that the spouses and families of Marines who died by suicide exhibited significantly poorer pre- and postmortem functioning compared with those whose spouses died in combat. Specific challenges included low family cohesion, high family conflict, perceived stigma, and shame. There were no differences in current spouse or family functioning, and there was weak evidence for posttraumatic growth among surviving spouses of those dying by suicide. These results should be considered preliminary and interpreted with caution given several methodological challenges.     

Navigating Bereavement With Spirituality‐Based Interventions: Implications for Non‐Faith‐Based Counselors

The relationship between spirituality and bereavement has been studied in a multitude of disciplines, yet there is a significant gap in the counseling literature on this topic. The authors explore how spirituality is often avoided in secular counseling settings, discuss adverse effects of unresolved grief on clients' functioning, and propose the concept that spirituality can be used to help clients through the bereavement process. Finally, the authors offer research and clinically based interventions that counselors, particularly those who do not identify as faith‐based, can use to incorporate spirituality into their work with bereaved clients.