Reconstructing Self and Sacred Meaning After the Death of an Extended-self: A Scoping Review of Spiritual Suffering Following Childhood Father Loss

Abstract

Early father-loss in childhood can exert lasting effects on self-structure, meaning, and spirituality. This scoping review maps scholarship on spiritual suffering and post-loss self-reconstruction, foregrounding an extended-self lens. Guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and ProQuest, screened studies against predefined criteria, and synthesized findings narratively and thematically. Evidence depicts father-loss as a sustained disruption of identity and meaning, with spiritual suffering emerging as layered, contextually embedded, and developmentally variable. Four themes recur: (1) disruption to self-structure and the extended self, (2) spiritual suffering as a layered existential experience, (3) meaning reconstruction and the continuity of bonds, and (4) the role of narrative and metaphor in spiritual meaning-making. The literature seldom operationalizes extended-self explicitly and is dominated by Western contexts. We call for systematic, cross-cultural, developmentally sensitive research that integrates extended-self theory and mixed, longitudinal designs to clarify developmental trajectories.

Keywords

childhood father loss extended-self meaning reconstruction scoping review spiritual suffering

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