College students\u27 beliefs about peer support for grieving peers: A reasoned action approach

This study examined the relationships between college students\u27 intention to listen supportively to a grieving peer and their beliefs, skills, and behaviors related to peer grief support. The overarching goal was to identify possible points of intervention for increasing college students\u27 supportive behaviors toward grieving peers. The literature review drew from the fields of college student grief, empathy, and college student development. The theoretical basis of the study was Fishbein and Ajzen\u27s reasoned action approach, and this investigation built on a qualitative elicitation study completed in May 2009. The current investigation\u27s results indicated that students exhibited more intention to listen supportively if they believed that others would listen and want them to listen to a grieving friend (i.e., normative beliefs) and that they could find time and a quiet, private place to listen (i.e., control beliefs). They also exhibited high intention if they generally tended to take on others\u27 perspectives, were concerned for others and were not apprehensive about interacting with a grieving peer. Students who had past experiences with listening supportively to a grieving friend exhibited higher intention to listen. Students who had past experiences with death losses also exhibited higher intention to listen, but only if they were emotionally close to the person who died. Overall, the current findings highlight the role of empathy, communicating apprehension with grieving individuals, emotional closeness to someone who has died, and previous support experience in students\u27 normative and control beliefs as well as their intention to listen supportively to grieving friends