This descriptive study used qualitative methods to look at two aspects of the search for meaning in parental bereavement--the search for cognitive mastery and the search for renewed purpose. One hundred and seventy-six bereaved parents answered…
Bereaved parents have higher morbidity and mortality rates when compared to non-bereaved parents. While parental grief is well studied, the complexities of challenges bereaved parents face are not understood. This study describes parental bereavement…
It is currently believed that effective intervention programs can reduce the negative consequences of stressful life events. The purpose of this paper is to describe a three-step process used to develop a theory-based preventive intervention for…
Objectives: Several barriers have been identified as preventing or delaying access to children's palliative care services. The aim of this study is to further explore such barriers from palliative care professionals' perspective from two London…
OBJECTIVES: Several barriers have been identified as preventing or delaying accessing to children's palliative care services. The aim of this study is to further explore such barriers from palliative care professionals' perspective from two London…
The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement recognizes the wide variation of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours pertaining to childhood death, dying, and bereavement. The purpose of this statement is, therefore, to identify a set of…
Open and honest communication has been identified as an important factor in providing good palliative care. However, there is no easy solution to if, when and how parents and a dying child should communicate about death. This paper reports how…
Open and honest communication has been identified as an important factor in providing good palliative care. However, there is no easy solution to if, when, and how parents and a dying child should communicate about death. This article reports how…
To contribute to a better understanding of the utility of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90R; L. Derogatis, 1983) with bereaved samples, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on SCL-90R responses of 97 parents 2 years after the death of…
Grounded theory analysis was used to generate an explanation of the phenomenon of meaning reconstruction in the experience of 10 bereaved mothers. The theory that emerged included three phases in the process of meaning reconstruction: discontinuity,…
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every…
To understand the lived experience of parents who have lost their child to a chronic life-limiting condition, six major databases were searched by adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Articles…
The death of an infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a profound and unexpected loss for parents that results in a complex process of coping with bereavement. A descriptive qualitative approach was used to explore parent bereavement…
Mindfulness-based interventions have recently been applied to grief-related distress. However, little is known about how bereaved participants experience them. This study explored bereaved parents' experiences of a mindfulness-based grief retreat…
This paper reports on a study that examined the grief and coping of 29 parents whose child has hypoplastic left heart syndrome using the Dual Process Model. The study employed a secondary thematic analysis of interviews at key times of treatment and…
Drawing on national, longitudinal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data (2005-2015), demographic, health, foster care, and geographic characteristics of decedents (N = 3,653) aged 1-17 years were examined. On average, decedents…
Federal and state government policymakers in Australia are promoting shared decision making in acute care hospitals as a means to improve the quality of end-of-life care. If policy is to be effective, health care professionals who provide hospital…
This article explores the grief process of parents following the death of a child due to a life-limiting illness, putting particular focus on dyadic coping. Participants included 46 married parents (23 couples). A mixed methods design was used with…
The purpose of the current study was to document the course and 1-month post-bereavement predictors of both positive and negative psychological states in bereaved gay male caregivers for 3 years following the death of their partners. The results show…
Few studies have fully explored the problem of communication barriers in pediatric palliative care, particularly the detrimental effects of poor interaction between staff and families on children's health and well-being. A literature review was…
The purpose of this article is to provide data on a recently developed instrument to measure the multidimensional nature of the bereavement process. In contrast to widely used grief instruments that have been developed using rational methods of…
Current models of bereavement care do not address all of bereaved parents' unique needs. Diverse challenges limit parents' ability to access certain bereavement services. A web-based intervention prototype for bereaved parents was developed. Using…
The article is a response to the contributions the special issue of Death Studies on continuing bonds. The contributions indicate that the conversation among scholars has clarified our thinking on how bonds function in individual grief. The author…
The study explores development of the concept of death among 204 Chinese children and adolescents and analyzes the relationships between death concept development and background variables. A coding manual for content analysis of death constructs…
The death of a loved one is a traumatic loss for children, but little attention has been paid to how children's responses vary according to who died--a parent or a sibling. This article reports the findings of a comparison between children's…
Multiple losses within short time periods make one question life and can exponentially influence one's coping skills. But what are the effects on a child and what should be done when the next loss occurs? This case addresses the multiple losses…
This study explored parental self-identity at 6, 12, and 18 months following the death of a child to cancer. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative methodology. Two patterns of parental self-identity emerged: identity…
This study proposes a method for calculating the annual incidence rate of sibling bereavement among US youth using national epidemiological data. The proposed model combines data on family household size with national death statistics to calculate…
Developmental changes in children's acquisition of death concepts and in their emotional reactions are reviewed. Moderating variables that may affect the nature of grieving processes after parental or sibling death are discussed, including…
The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of bereaved parents in Greece (N = 56) regarding the provision of hospital based bereavement services after the death of their child to cancer. The participants did not receive formal or informal…
The aim was to study mothers' experiences of online peer support groups after the death of a child. Participants (N = 8) were recruited through a newsletter for the Swedish association for families/children with heart defects, and two closed support…
Following an unexpected pediatric death, survivors undergo unique trauma. Medical examiners (MEs) evaluate most of these deaths. We evaluated the bereavement support available to survivors in the Chicagoland area following a pediatric death. We had…
