Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article looks at how the gender of the surviving parent affects the coping styles of bereaved family's with dependent children. Interview data from five father- and five mother-headed bereaved families from the MGH/Harvard Child Bereavement Study were subjected to an in-depth analysis. The findings suggest differences in parental coping patterns that seemed to be gender specific. Mothers in this sub-sample tended to adjust their own priorities to their children's needs, recognizing their children's needs for continuity in daily family life. For mothers there was more continuity between their past and their present roles. Family life was more disrupted by the death in father-headed households and fathers' efforts to establish new family routines did not always achieve their goal. Fathers, in this sub-sample, recognized the importance of continuity for their children by the second year after the death. However, they did not always make needed changes in their coping styles to meet these needs. Coping styles that fathers used seemed more parent-centered using an administrative approach to managing the household; mothers were more child-centered and had a more nurturing approach in dealing with their children.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bowling

(1989). Who dies after widow(er)hood? A discriminant analysis, Omega, 18(1), 41–52.

Campbell

, & Silverman

P. R.

(1996). Widowers: When men are left alone. Death, Value and Meanings Series, Morgan

(Series Ed.), Amityville, NY: Baywood.

Carter

, & McGoldrick

(1988). Overview: The changing family life cycle—A framework for family therapy. In Carter

& McGoldrick

(Eds.), The changing family life cycle (2nd ed., pp. 3–28). New York: Gardner Press.

Connell

(1987). Gender and power. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Cook

(1988). Dad's double binds: Rethinking fathers' bereavement from a men's studies perspective. Journal of Ethnography, 17(3), 308–385.

Doka

K. J.

, & Martin

(1998). Masculine responses to loss: Clinical implications. Journal of Family Studies, 4(2), 143–158.

Ehrensaft

(1995). Bringing in fathers: The reconstruction of mothering. In Shapiro

Diamond

, & Greenberg

(Eds.), Becoming a father: Contemporary, social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 43–59). New York: Springer.

Elkind

(1994). Ties that stress: The new family imbalance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gilligan

(1993). In a different voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

10.

Gilligan

(1996). The centrality of relationship in human development: A puzzle, some evidence, and a theory. In Noam

& Fischer

K. W.

(Eds.). Development and vulnerability in close relationships. The Jean Piaget Symposium Series (pp. 237–261). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

11.

Glaser

, & Strauss

A. L.

(1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co.

12.

Hogan

, & Balk

(1991). Adolescent reactions to sibling death: Perception of mothers, fathers, and teenager. Nursing Research, 39, 103–106.

13.

Jordan

(1993). The relational self: A model of women's development. In van Mens-Verhulst

Schreurs

, and Woertman

(Eds.), Daughtering and mothering: Female subjectivity reanalyzed (pp. 135–44). London: Routledge.

14.

Jordan

(1997) (Eds.). Women's growth in diversity: More writings from the Stone Center. New York: The Guilford Press.

15.

Lang

, & Gottlieb

(1993). Marital intimacy after infant death. Death Studies, 17, 233–256.

16.

Levinson

D. J.

(1978). The seasons of a man's life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

17.

Lupton

, & Barclay

(1997). Constructing fatherhood. London: Sage Publications.

18.

Mac an Ghaill

(Ed.) (1996). Understanding masculinities. Buckingham: Open University Press.

19.

McMahon

(1995). Engendering motherhood: Identity and self-transformation in women's lives. New York: Guilford Press.

20.

Miles

M. B.

, & Huberman

A. B.

(1994). An expanded sourcebook. Qualitative data analysis (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications.

21.

Miller

J. B.

, & Stiver

I. P.

(1997). The healing connection: How women form relationships in therapy and in life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

22.

Morgan

(1992). Discovering men. London: Routledge.

23.

Preto

N. G.

(1988). Transformation of the family system in adolescence. In Carter

& McGoldrick

(Eds.), The changing family life cycle (2nd. ed, pp. 255–284). New York: Gardner Press.

24.

Sanders

C. M.

(1993). Risk factors in bereavement outcome. In Stroebe

Stroebe

, & Hansson

R. O.

(Eds.), Handbook of bereavement (pp. 255–267). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

25.

Silverman

P. R.

(1981). Helping women cope with grief. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

26.

Silverman

P. R.

(1988). In search of new selves: Accommodating to widowhood. In Bond

L. A.

& Wagner

(Eds.), Families in transition: Primary programs that work (pp. 200–220). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

27.

Silverman

P. R.

(2000). Never too young to know: Children and death. New York: Oxford University Press.

28.

Silverman

P. R.

, & Gross

(1996). Parental perceptions of children's needs in widowed families. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), Pittsburgh, PA.

29.

Silverman

P. R.

, & Worden

J. W.

(1992). Children's reactions in the early months after the death of a parent. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 62(1), 93–104.

30.

Strauss

, & Corbin

(1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

31.

Stroebe

, & Stroebe

(1983). Who suffers more? Sex differences in health risks of the widowed. Psychological Bulletin, 93(2), 279–301.

32.

Stroebe

, & Stroebe

(1987). Bereavement and health. New York: Cambridge University Press.

33.

Weiss

R. S.

(1990). Staying the course: The emotional and social lives of men who do well at work. New York: Fawcett Columbine.

34.

Weiss

R. S.

(1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview studies. New York: The Free Press.

35.

Worden

J. W.

, & Silverman

P. R.

(1993). Grief and depression in newly widowed parents with school-age children. Omega, 27(3), 251–261.

Gender Specific Coping Patterns in Widowed Parents with Dependent Children

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References