Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Thirty-three bereaved husbands and wives whose child had died completed the Grief Experience Inventory at three different times over a one-year period. A repeated-measures MANOVA found significant differences between grief levels of spouses' responses and/or differences over time in ten of the twelve variables studied: denial, despair, guilt, loss of control, rumination, depersonalization, somatization, death anxiety, vigor, and physical strength. A Pearson product-moment correlation indicated that spouses' negative feelings about their marriages were significantly correlated, in a positive direction, with higher levels of grief following the child's death. At the end of the year-long study, however, there were few significant relationships between levels of grief and negative feelings about their marriages for wives and none for husbands.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Hollingsworth

C. W.

Pasnau

R. O.

, The Family in Mourning: A Guide for Health Professionals, Grune and Stratton Publishing Company, New York, 1977.

Johnson

S. E.

, After a Child Dies: Counseling Bereaved Families, Springer Publishing Company, New York, 1987.

Rando

T. A.

, Parental Loss of a Child, Research Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1986.

Schiff

H. S.

, The Bereaved Parent, Crown Publishing Company, New York, 1977.

Wass

Corr

C. A.

, Childhood and Death, Hemisphere Publishing Company, Washington, D.C., 1984.

Osterweis

Solomon

Green

(eds.), “Bereavement: Reactions, Consequences and Care,” Report by the Committee for the Study of Health Consequences of the Stress of Bereavement, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1984.

Rando

T. A.

, Grief, Dying, and Death: Clinical Interventions for Caregivers, Research Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1984.

Pine

V. R.

Brauer

, Parental Grief: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Intervention, in Parental Loss of a Child, Rando

T. A.

(ed.), Research Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1986.

Miles

M. S.

, Emotional Symptoms and Physical Health in Bereaved Parents, Nursing Research, 34, pp. 76–81, 1984.

10.

Cook

J. A.

, A Death in the Family: Parental Bereavement in the First Year, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 13, pp. 42–60, 1983.

11.

Fish

W. C.

, Differences of Grief Intensity in Bereaved Parents, in Parental Loss of a Child, Rando

T. A.

(ed.), Research Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1986.

12.

Saunders

C. M.

, A Comparison of Adult Bereavement in the Death of a Spouse, Child, and Parent, Omega, 10, pp. 303–322, 1979.

13.

Saunders

C. M.

Mauger

P. A.

Strong

P. N.

Jr. , A Manual for the Grief Experience Inventory, 1979.

14.

Jacobs

S. C.

, Measures of the Psychological Distress of Bereavement, in Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement, Zisook

(ed.), American Psychiatric Press, Washington, D.C., 1987.

15.

Hansen

Hill

, Families Under Stress, in Handbook of Marriage and the Family, Christensen

H. T.

(ed.), Rand McNally Publishing Company, Chicago, 1964.

16.

Johnson-Soderberg

, Parents who Have Lost a Child by Death, in Minimizing High Risk Parenting, Sasserath

V. J.

(ed.), Johnson and Johnson Publishing Company, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1983.

17.

Rando

T. A.

, An Investigation of Grief and Adaptation in Parents Whose Children Have Died from Cancer, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 8, pp. 3–20, 1983.

Grief Responses of Spouses following the Death of a Child: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References