Coping with Loss: Determining What Nurtures Or Hinders Grieving.

This study was an empirical investigation of how people cope with the grief resulting from the death of a loved one. Its purpose was to identify ways people cope with grief and to determine whether those coping mechanisms helped or hurt their recovery. Ten white, upper-middle-class adults were interviewed who had been bereaved one to five years previously. Four were men, six women. Four had lost a parent, three a spouse, two a child, and one a sibling. Five deaths had been sudden; five were lingering. Each respondent was interviewed twice. The first interview was open-ended, lasting up to two hours, and followed a guideline designed to encourage spontaneous disclosure. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. An outside consultant reviewed initial interview transcripts to aid question development for the follow-up interview which lasted one hour or less and covered points missed previously. A questionnaire was then administered to elicit background information. A case summary was written about each respondent, including relevant quotations. Investigation of the data revealed six major themes: (1) conscious responses to grief, (2) unconscious responses, (3) effects of rituals and external events, (4) influences of other people, (5) changes due to the death, and (6) the effect of participation in this study. Grief appears to vary with the individual. Usefulness of coping mechanisms can vary with age, relationship to the deceased, circumstances around the death, prior losses, and prior emotional stability. Further research is clearly needed. Fruitful areas for further investigation include effects of: demographic variables; grief education; presence at the death; religious and spiritual beliefs; therapy and drugs; rituals; the behaviours of families and friends; interventions of medical professionals, clergy, and morticians; talking to survivors of similar losses; non-verbal activities; and the study of the bereaved. Implications for educating people to help the bereaved include the need for underst and ing the limitations of current knowledge about what is helpful. Also, helpers need to be comfortable with their own grief and aware of their emotional strengths and weaknesses. A number of suggestions are given for training people to help survivors of loss based on these principles.PhDSocial psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159600/1/8324237.pd