Faith in the Wake of Homicide: Religious Coping and Bereavement Distress in an African American Sample

Burke, Laurie A.; Neimeyer, Robert A.; McDevitt-Murphy, Meghan E.; Ippolito, Marica Rosaria; Roberts, Joyce

doi:10.1080/10508619.2011.607416

Cited by 64 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Burke and her colleagues [20] demonstrated, through a series of multivariate analyses exploring bereavement distress and spiritual crisis, that CSG is a serious, yet understudied, form of bereavement distress. Their longitudinal study of 46 African American homicidally bereaved individuals revealed that not only did survivors demonstrate greater use of religious coping more generally than did individuals in other samples, such as distressed college students, Oklahoma City bombing survivors, medical inpatients [34], medically ill elderly [36], and dying patients [35], but also that their level of spiritual struggle (as assessed by NRC scores on the Brief RCOPE) [34] was nearly twice as high in comparison.…”

Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When Burke and her co-authors [20] bifurcated their sample into survivors who screened positive for CG (complicated grievers; CGs) and those who did not (non-complicated grievers; NCGs), they found that CGs experienced higher levels of NRC than did non-CGs, but that there was no difference between the two groups in terms of PRC. When testing to see if specific CG symptoms at T1 might prospectively predict subsequent religious coping items, they found elevated mean scores on three items from the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised (ICG-R; [23])-#1 feeling devastated/overwhelmed by the death, #5 longing/yearning for the deceased, and #7 feeling angry about the death-in comparison to other items on the scale.…”

Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, Burke et al [20] established a strong link between CG and subsequent spiritual crisis. In fact, their results substantiated that, in comparison to non-symptomatic grievers, individuals in their sample with high levels of both CG and NRC might need more than simply compassion and the passage of time in order to successfully adapt to traumatizing loss.…”

Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, most research to date has examined the connection between bereavement outcome and religious coping in cross-sectional studies (see [12], for full review), often assuming that the latter predicts the former. In contrast, recent research suggests that the opposite relation could be at least as significant: bereavement distress may forecast later spiritual struggle [20].…”

Section: Introduction/backgroundmentioning

confidence: 97%

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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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Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spiritual Crisis Following Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction/backgroundmentioning

confidence: 97%

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

Neimeyer

Burke

2011

Religions

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“…Burke, Neimeyer, McDevitt-Murphy, Ippolito and Roberts (2011) recently reported, for example, that African Americans, bereaved by the homicide of a loved one, frequently struggled with complex grief, and that this form of distress from bereavement predicted subsequent struggles with feeling abandoned by God and the faith community some six months later.…”

Section: Loss and The Quest For Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing meaning in bereavement: summary of a research program

Neimeyer

2011

Estud. psicol. (Campinas)

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Bereavement, in the form of the loss of a significant attachment figure, disrupts the self-narratives of survivors and typically pitches them into an unsought quest for meaning in the loss, as well as in their changed lives. A growing body of research on diverse groups - bereaved parents, young people, elderly - suffering loss through both natural and violent death, documents the link between the inability to find meaning in the experience and the intensity of complicated grief they suffer. This article reviews the literature, arguing that the processes of sense-making and benefit-finding play a crucial role in bereavement adaptation for many of the bereaved, and accordingly, that interventions that facilitate processes of meaning reconstruction can support effective psychotherapy for those struggling with intense and prolonged grief.

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Negative religious coping versus spiritual struggles: Moderator or main effect?

Pirutinsky

2024

J Clin Psychol

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ObjectiveWhile previous research indicates that negative religious coping relates with distress, it is unclear if this represents generalized spiritual struggles or a specific vulnerability activated by negative events. Moreover, past research treats coping as a stable phenomenon, although it likely fluctuates. This research simultaneously tested both models longitudinally and examined the relationship between coping and distress.MethodsThe current study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected online over 3 years from 397 participants. Life events, negative religious coping, and depressive symptoms were assessed on six occasions, and linear mixed‐effect models were used to analyze data.ResultsNegative religious coping was largely stable with increases at times of stress. Participants with higher mean negative coping reported more depressive symptoms regardless of life circumstances (i.e., main effect), likely reflecting generalized spiritual struggles. In addition, those with higher mean coping or with particularly high levels at a given time reported even higher levels of symptoms when they experienced more negative life events (i.e., moderation effect).ConclusionResults suggest that previous research merges two distinct phenomena—spiritual struggles and negative coping. This has important theoretical and research implications and suggests that integrating spirituality and religion into treatment can be warranted.

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Faith in the Wake of Homicide: Religious Coping and Bereavement Distress in an African American Sample

Cited by 64 publications

References 46 publications

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

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

Reconstructing meaning in bereavement: summary of a research program

Negative religious coping versus spiritual struggles: Moderator or main effect?

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