Few empirical studies have explored the grieving process among different ethnic groups within the United States, and very little is known about how African Americans and Caucasians may differ in their experience of loss. The purpose of this study was to examine the African-American experience of grief, with particular emphasis on issues of identity change, interpersonal dimensions of the loss, and continuing attachments with the deceased. Participants were 1,581 bereaved college students (940 Caucasians and 641 African Americans) attending classes at a large southern university. Each participant completed the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised, the Continuing Bonds Scale, and questions regarding the circumstances surrounding his or her loss. Results revealed that African Americans experienced more frequent bereavement by homicide, maintenance of a stronger continuing bond with the deceased, greater grief for the loss of extended kin beyond the immediate family, and a sense of support in their grief, despite their tendency to talk less with others about the loss or seek professional support for it. Overall, African Americans reported higher levels of complicated grief symptoms than Caucasians, especially when they spent less time speaking to others about their loss experience. Implications of these findings for bereavement support services for African Americans were briefly noted.

In the past few years, 26 states have changed their constitutions to restrict marriage to one man and one woman. There has been little research on the psychological effects of this political process on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people. In this qualitative project, 13 GLBT people were interviewed about their experience during the process of a constitutional amendment. A grounded theory analysis of these semistructured interviews was conducted. The core category, or central finding, was "GLBT people need to balance the dual dangers of engagement with GLBT advocacy and self-protection through withdrawal." Other findings focused on the experience of living in a context of painful reminders that one is seen as less than human by the government and public, and in which one's life is frequently and publicly misrepresented to advance hostile political campaigns. Social support and a process of self-acceptance helped participants to face their fears of isolation, discrimination, and aggression and to fight for social justice.

When Chantay's cousin, Demarcus, was shot and killed one night on a street in the "wrong part of town," some people in her family regarded the event as sadly inevitable. For the past few years he had been spending more and more time with a bad crowd, getting into drugs and trouble with the law and drifting farther away from family, despite his mother's attempt to hold on to the "good boy" she had raised. Perhaps because she had been brought up in the same tight extended family with Demarcus, Chantay's grief following the traumatic phone call informing her of his death was acute-at an emotional level, she felt like she had lost a brother. Although the family and African American community pulled together at the time of the funeral, Chantay found herself struggling with the unreal sense of the loss in the months that followed as the family adopted a code of silence about the death. Likewise, she struggled with the perception that she, as the oldest daughter, needed to be strong and not disclose her personal distress or the terrifying images of the shooting that so often came at night. What was more confusing was that Chantay's White college roommate kept encouraging her to open up about her feelings, in contradiction to her community's unspoken rule not to share family business with outsiders. For Chantay, however, the religious platitudes she received from family when she did 133

The authors discuss lessons from a multifaceted research program focused on how individuals find meaning in the wake of loss experiences. These lessons offer guidance to help bereaved students make sense of bereavement and move beyond grief to growth.

Background Identifying intimate partner violence (IPV) in healthcare settings is becoming the standard of care. The Brief Inpatient Screen (BIS) was designed to assess recent emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in a general inpatient medical-surgical setting and compared to the Composite Abuse Scale (CAS). Methods We matched “cases” (inpatients screening BIS-positive) to up to four “controls” (inpatients screening BIS-negative.) Forty-six female hospital inpatients ages 18–64 years completed a self-administered survey. The sensitivity and specificity of the BIS and its subscales were compared to the CAS. We examined the performance of the BIS when used as a verbal screen versus an anonymous written screen. Results Twelve of 46 participants (26%) had a positive screen. Compared to the CAS, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the verbal BIS were 52.6% (95% CI 28.9–75.6) and 92.6% (95% CI 75.7–99.1), respectively. The written BIS showed improved sensitivity overall (68.4%, 95% CI 43.5–87.4) for the most severe IPV. Subscale analysis revealed greater sensitivity for emotional and severe combined IPV. Conclusions The verbal BIS, when compared to the CAS, was limited in its ability to identify IPV. An anonymous written format improved sensitivity. Future research should optimize IPV screening among inpatients.