Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope with the Death of a Child to Suicide or Drugs

by Feigelman, William

• ISBN13: 9780826107466
• ISBN10: 082610746X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: SPRINGER PUB CO INC

Summary

This volume fills a critical gap in our scientific understanding of the grief response of parents who have lost a child to traumatic death and the psychotherapeutic strategies that best facilitate healing. It is based on the results of the largest study ever conducted of parents surviving a child's traumatic death or suicide. The book was conceived by William and Beverly Feigelman following their own devastating loss of a son, and written from the perspective of their experiences as both suicide-survivor support group participants and facilitators. It intertwines data, insight, and critical learning gathered from research with the voices of the 574 survivors who participated in the study. The text emphasizes the sociological underpinnings of survivor's grief and provides data that vividly documents the critical need for emotional support from family members, coworkers, and friends. It explains how bereavement difficulties can be exacerbated by failure of significant others to provide expected support, while membership in peer support groups and the long-term connections often made there greatly facilitate the healing process. The argument that various types of stigmatization complicate and prolong grieving is well documented. The book also focuses on the unique bereavement difficulties of parent survivors of drug overdose deaths and compares the stigmatization of these parents with that of survivors of other traumatic losses. Also explored are the ways in which couples adapt to the traumatic loss of a child and how this can bring them closer or render their relationship irreparable.Key Features: Offers researchers, clinicians, and parent-survivors current information on how parents adapt after the traumatic loss of a childPresents data culled from the largest survey ever conducted (574 individuals) of parents surviving a child's suicide or other traumatic deathInvestigates the ways in which stigmatization complicates and prolongs the grieving processAddresses the tremendous value of support groups in the healing processExplores how married couples are affected by the traumatic loss of their childIdentifies the needs for mental health services among longer-term survivors

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Theoretical Issues Guiding This Study and How the Data Were Collected	p. 15
The Plan of This Book	p. 15
Theoretical Issues Guiding This Research	p. 17
Studying a More Approachable Question	p. 20
Study Methods, Sample Characteristics, and Measurements	p. 22
Quantitative Data Sources, and Methods	p. 22
Characteristics of the Sample	p. 25
Measurements	p. 26
Additional Qualitative Data Sources	p. 28
Thoughts on the Difficulties of Doing Traumatic-Loss Research	p. 29
Factors Associated With the Loss Experience
Suicide Stigma and Compounding a Survivor's Grief Difficulties	p. 39
Introduction	p. 39
Findings on Stigmatization	p. 45
Implications	p. 53
Drug-Overdose Deaths and Survivors' Grief: A Greatly Neglected Subject	p. 59
Introduction	p. 59
The Trajectory of Grief After Drug-Overdose Deaths	p. 63
Methodological Concerns	p. 66
Measures	p. 67
Type of Loss	p. 67
Results	p. 69
Stigma, Grief, and Mental Health Problem Behaviors	p. 69
Controlling for Potential Confounding Variables	p. 70
Discussion	p. 74
Conclusion	p. 78
Differences in the Suicide Death Circumstances and How They May Affect a Survivor's Grief	p. 81
Introduction	p. 81
Measures of Interest	p. 84
Finding the Body	p. 84
Surprise at the Death	p. 84
Prior Relationships	p. 84
Suicide Method	p. 85
Results	p. 85
Interpreting Our Findings	p. 91
Grief Overload: The Impact of Multiple Losses, Only-Child Loss, and Multiple Stressor Events on Bereaved Parents	p. 97
Sustaining Multiple Losses	p. 98
Differences in Grief and Mental Health Problems	p. 103
Losing One's Only Child	p. 106
Exploring Associations Between Other Potential Stressful Events and Parent Survivors' Grief	p. 114
Summary and Conclusion	p. 116
Forms of Bereavement Assistance and How They Help Survivors Cope
Early Years After Loss: Survivors Get Help and Advance From Their Depths of Despair	p. 225
Responses From Our Survey Participants	p. 127
Help-Seeking Activities of All Newly Bereaved Parents	p. 128
What Helps Survivors the Most?	p. 132
Type of Loss and Differences in Getting Help	p. 133
How Did Our Respondents Use Different Healing Aids?	p. 138
The Social Characteristics of Those Avoiding All Professional Mental Health and Peer Help Altogether	p. 139
Social and Grief Characteristics of Those Using Support Groups and Professional Counseling Help	p. 141
Summing Up	p. 144
Later Years After Loss: Identifying the Postvention Needs of Survivors	p. 147
Introduction	p. 147
Investigating the Correlates of Grief and Psychological Difficulties Among Longer Term Bereaved Parents	p. 152
Bereaved Parents' Use of Healing Aids in Later Years After Loss, Their Postvention Needs, and Examining Whether They Comprise an At-Risk Population	p. 158
The Healing Potential of Suicide Survivor Support Groups	p. 171
Introduction	p. 171
The Group Studied	p. 174
Survivors Pursue Their Common Goals	p. 175
Conclusion	p. 183
Suicide Survivor Support Groups: Comings and Goings	p. 187
Introduction	p. 187
Social Factors Associated With Joining a Support Group	p. 188
Findings	p. 189
Frequency of Peer Support Group Participation During the Past Year	p. 189
Correlates of Current Support Group Participation	p. 190
Conclusions: Who Joins Support Groups?	p. 192
Why Do Many Survivors Eventually Withdraw From Support Groups?	p. 195
Findings on Support Group Departures	p. 197
Clarifying the Synergistic Association Between Seeing Bereavement Counselors and Going to Support Groups	p. 197
Why Survivors Leave Support Groups During Early Grieving Years: Facilitator Skill Issues	p. 199
Departures Among the Newly Bereaved (Not Associated With Leadership Deficiencies)	p. 202
Departures Among Survivors With Longer Associations in Support Groups	p. 206
Posttraumatic Growth Through Social Activism	p. 209
Summary and Conclusions	p. 211
Personal Growth After a Suicide Loss: Is It Associated With a Survivor's Mental Health?	p. 215
Introduction	p. 215
Findings	p. 219
Summary and Study Limitations	p. 224
Conclusions	p. 228
Internet Support Groups for Suicide Survivors: A New Form of Grief Support	p. 232
Introduction	p. 231
Gathering the Data for This Chapter	p. 233
Results	p. 234
Use Patterns	p. 234
What Internet Support Group Members Value About Online Participation	p. 236
Reasons for Seeking an Internet Group	p. 239
Demographic Characteristics of Internet and Face-to-Face Group Affiliates	p. 240
Differences in Grief Difficulties and Mental Health Problems	p. 240
Summary and Implications	p. 247
The Impact of a Child's Traumatic Death on Married Couples
Gender Differences in Grief After the Death of a Child	p. 255
Marital Cohesion and Help Seeking	p. 263
Gender Differences in Grief and Mental Health Difficulties	p. 265
Investigating Whether Child Loss Promotes Harmony or Discord Among Married Couples	p. 273
Survey Data	p. 277
Marital Solidarity	p. 279
Demographic Variables	p. 281
Psychological Variables	p. 282
Correlates of Increased Marital Closeness	p. 287
Summing Up	p. 289
Where Do We Go From Here?	p. 293
Suggestions for Future Research	p. 295
Appendix	p. 303
Index	p. 335
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