Sustaining meaning in life, maintaining emotional well-being, and balancing attachments to the living and the deceased are features associated with the psychological (and often private) impact of loss. In the Two-Track Model of Bereavement, the loss process is conceptualized along two distinct but interactive axes that attend to these overt and covert aspects of the response to loss. Whereas Track I is concerned with biopsychosocial functioning in the wake of loss, it is Track II that focuses on the bereaved's ongoing emotional attachment and relationship to the deceased. The contributions of the model to theory and research can serve to clarify our thinking about bereavement as a process resonating throughout one's life. Initially, research and clinical findings from bereaved parents are presented to illustrate the Two-Track Model and its contribution to the deepening of our understanding of loss throughout the life cycle. The contributions of the model to clinical practice are then considered for their ability to clarify our thinking and interventions. Two clinical cases illustrate situations where a predominant focus is on one or the other of these tracks. Ultimately, the Two-Track Model of Bereavement's use extends to the organization and clarification of theory, research, and clinical work.

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, 0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son! -2 Samuel 18:33The impetus for living things to reproduce and create offspring who survive them is so basic to life that it is one of the fundamental truths of our world, like gravity or the sun. Through it, continuity and a kind of immortality are achieved. The human impetus to reproduce and create offspring embraces both the biological and the symbolical. People both create life and give meaning to that life as part of existence and selfpreservation (Neimeyer, Keese, & Fortner, 2000). When one's child dies, however, a significant portion of the parent's life energy can effectively die with that child. This can have negative results for the individual, the family, and the community (Rubin, 1993

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Much remains to be learned about the long-term effects of adult bereavement. A two-track model, considering both affective attachment to the deceased and extent of personality change, is used in the present study to examine aspects of the maternal reaction to sudden infant death. It is suggested that this two-track perspective offers greater specificity in studying the nature and duration of the effects of loss.

The Two-Track Model of Bereavement Questionnaire (TTBQ) was designed to assess response to loss over time. Respondents were 354 persons who completed the 70-item self-report questionnaire constructed in accordance with the Two-Track Model of Bereavement. Track I focuses on the bereaved's biopsychosocial functioning and Track II concerns the bereaved's ongoing relationship to the range of memories, images, thoughts, and feeling states associated with the deceased. Factor analysis identified 5 factors that accounted for 51% of the variance explained. In accord with the theoretical and clinical model, 3 factors were primarily associated with the relationship to the deceased (Track II): Active Relational Grieving, Close and Positive Relationship, and Conflictual Relationship; and 2 factors with aspects of functioning (Track I): General Biopsychosocial Functioning and Traumatic Perception of the Loss. Construct and concurrent validity were examined and were found satisfactory. Differences by kinship, cause of death, gender, and time elapsed were examined across the 5 factors, the total TTBQ, and the ITG. The new measure is shown to have both construct and concurrent validity. Discussions of the results and implications for the measurement of response to loss conclude the article.