Coping with Bereavement among Elderly Widowers

Richardson, Virginia; Balaswamy, Shantha

doi:10.2190/y2q6-bb75-enm7-bbyr

Cited by 57 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…However, other studies document that grievers do not always feel ministered to by their spiritual community. For example, Richardson and Balaswamy [51] found that widowers who regularly attended church services had less positive and more negative affect than those who attended irregularly. One plausible explanation is suggested by mourners who report a sense of abandonment by others while they are grieving, or in some cases enduring negative interactions that complicate an already difficult bereavement [52].…”

Section: Spiritual Copingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

Burke

Neimeyer

2014

Religions

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Many mourners turn to their spiritual beliefs and traditions when confronted by the death of a loved one. However, prior studies have either focused primarily on the benefits of faith following loss or studied spiritual struggle outside the context of bereavement. Moreover, scales to measure bereavement-related crises of faith and interventions specifically designed for spiritually inclined, distressed grievers are virtually non-existent. Our program of research, which to date has consisted of working with Christian grievers and is outlined below, elucidates complicated spiritual grief (CSG)-a spiritual crisis following the loss of a loved one. For example, our longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors established the relation between positive religious coping, CSG, and complicated grief (CG), to clarify whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa, with a follow-up study that determined the relation between religious coping and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We replicated and expanded these findings with a diverse sample of 150 grievers to explore the complex relation between CSG, CG, and meaning making in a comparison study of mourners who had experienced traumatic-versus natural death losses. In a companion study, we qualitatively analyzed 84 grievers' narratives and interviewed a 5-member focus group to capture and learn from their firsthand experiences of spiritual distress. To close the gap in terms of CSG assessment, we also developed and validated the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG). Currently, our ongoing CSG investigation extends in several directions: first, to a sample of family members OPEN ACCESSReligions 2014, 5 1088 anticipating the loss of their hospice-eligible loved one in palliative care; and, second, to the development and testing of a writing-intensive intervention for newly bereaved, spiritually inclined grievers.

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Section: Spiritual Copingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

Burke

Neimeyer

2014

Religions

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“…In some studies, church attendance has been associated with better bereavement outcomes [40][41][42], and yet results from other studies examining the benefits of spiritual social support imply that grievers do not always feel ministered to by their spiritual community. Richardson and Balaswamy [43] found for example that widowers who regularly attended church services had less positive and more negative affect than those who attended less regularly. One plausible explanation might be suggested by reports from mourners who express feeling a sense of abandonment or isolation from others while they are grieving, or in some cases enduring negative interactions that unnecessarily complicate an already difficult grieving experience [44].…”

Section: Spiritual Copingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Neimeyer

Burke

2011

Religions

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Both grieving the loss of a loved one and using spirituality or religion as an aid in doing so are common behaviors in the wake of death. This longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors follows up on our earlier study that established the relation between positive and negative religious coping on the one hand and complicated grief (CG) on the other. In the current report, we broadened this focus to determine the relation between religious coping and other bereavement outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, to establish whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa. We also sought to determine if the predictive power of CG in terms of religious coping over time exceeded that of PTSD and depression. Our results suggested a link between negative religious coping (NRC) and all forms of bereavement distress, whereas no such link was found between positive religious coping (PRC) and bereavement outcomes in our final analyses. Significantly, only CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle six months later. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.

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“…Circumstances that predict prolonged grief include a strong dependence on the close friend or family member before the death, the suddenness of the death, a lack of social support, and co-occurring other stressors (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). Cooccurring factors that can intensify grief or lengthen the time of grief include the concomitant loss of health or financial security, forced relocation, the sacrifice of a job to care for the dying person, or the burden of dealing with legal and practical problems related to the death (28)(29)(30). The loss of a close friend or relative may set in motion a cascade of negative events that culminate in serious physical illness (31) or even homelessness (32).…”

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confidence: 99%

Bereavement in the Context of Serious Mental Illness

Macias¹,

Jones²,

Harvey³

et al. 2004

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Objective-This study examined whether the situational factors that contribute to severe grief in the general population predicted the severity of grief in a sample of persons who had diagnoses of serious mental illness.Method-Research participants who had a diagnosis of a serious mental illness and who reported the death of a close friend or family member during a five-year service evaluation project were asked to detail the circumstances that surrounded the death and to rate how the death affected their lives. Key research measures included the self-rated measurement of the impact of the death, the self-rated measurement of the duration of the reported grief, and scores on a psychiatric symptom assessment in the six months after the death. A regression analysis tested the cumulative count of four situational factors-residing with the close friend or family member at the time of the death, the suddenness of the death, having low social support, and having concurrent stressors-as a predictor of severe and prolonged grief.Results-In the sample of 148 individuals with serious mental illness, 33 (22 percent) reported the death of a close friend or family member as a significant life event that resulted in relatively acute and brief grief (15 individuals, or 10 percent) or severe and prolonged grief (18 individuals, or 12 percent). The regression analysis confirmed that the more situational factors that occurred at the time of the death, the more severe the grief reaction was, irrespective of psychiatric symptomatology.Conclusions-Mental health services for persons with serious mental illness should begin to incorporate preparation for parental death and bereavement counseling as essential services, and such interventions should approach bereavement as a normal rather than a pathological response to interpersonal loss.Severe grief in response to the death of a close friend or family member is associated with a variety of physical and mental disorders (1-3) as well as with persistent depressive symptoms (4,5). Although the estimated incidence of prolonged, intense grief in the general population is only 11 to 15 percent (6-8), a study found that nearly a third of the psychiatric outpatients who were surveyed were currently experiencing intense grief that had already lasted an average of ten years (9).A bereaved individual with a preexisting psychiatric disorder is especially vulnerable to depression and depression-related physical illnesses (10,11). However, the etiology of chronic, severe grief appears to be more circumstantial than psychiatric in nature. Maladaptive cognitions-for example, denial, self-blame, and ambivalence-do not appear to lengthen the grieving process (12-15), but situational factors do. Circumstances that predict prolonged grief include a strong dependence on the close friend or family member before the death, the suddenness of the death, a lack of social support, and co-occurring other stressors (16-27). Cooccurring factors that can intensify grief or lengthen the time of grief include...

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Coping with Bereavement among Elderly Widowers

Cited by 57 publications

References 41 publications

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

Spiritual Distress in Bereavement: Evolution of a Research Program

Complicated Grief in the Aftermath of Homicide: Spiritual Crisis and Distress in an African American Sample

Bereavement in the Context of Serious Mental Illness

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