Sense and significance: a mixed methods examination of meaning making after the loss of one's child

Wendy G. Lichtenthal · Joseph M. Currier · Robert A. Neimeyer · Nancy J. Keesee

213 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Clinical Psychology

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Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify specific themes of meaning making (sense making and benefit finding) among bereaved parents, as well as to examine associations of these themes to the severity of grief symptomatology. A sample of 156 bereaved parents responded in writing to open-ended questions about sense making and benefit finding. We assessed normative grief symptoms with the Core Bereavement Items (Burnett, Middleton, Raphael, & Martinek, 1997) and maladaptive grief symptoms with the Inventory of Complicated Grief (Prigerson et al., 1995). Qualitative analyses revealed 45% of the sample could not make sense of their loss, and 21% could not identify benefits related to their loss experience. These parents had more severe normative and maladaptive grief symptoms. Overall, parents discussed 32 distinct approaches to finding meaning in their child's death, 14 of which involved sense making, and 18 involved themes of benefit finding. The most common sense-making themes involved spirituality and religious beliefs, and the most common benefit-finding themes entailed an increase in the desire to help and compassion for others' suffering. These results further reinforce the importance of meaning making for many bereaved parents and suggest the utility of developing and evaluating meaning-centered grief interventions with this population.

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References

2004TARGET ARTICLE: "Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence"2009Prolonged Grief Disorder: Psychometric Validation of Criteria Proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11 1997Meaning in the Context of Stress and Coping 1995Inventory of complicated grief: A scale to measure maladaptive symptoms of loss 1998Making sense of loss and benefiting from the experience: Two construals of meaning.2001Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping, and care.1997Traumatic grief as a risk factor for mental and physical morbidity 2005Loss, Grief, and the Search for Significance: Toward a Model of Meaning Reconstruction in Bereavement

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2012Psychological effects of stillbirth 2015Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After Perinatal Loss in a Population-Based Sample 2016Meaning Reconstruction in the Wake of Loss: Evolution of a Research Program 2013The Meaning of Loss Codebook: Construction of a System for Analyzing Meanings Made in Bereavement 2018The Grief of Parents After the Death of a Young Child

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