Spiritual aspects of loss among partners of men with AIDS: postbereavement follow-up

Title

Spiritual aspects of loss among partners of men with AIDS: postbereavement follow-up

Creator

Richards TA; Acree M; Folkman S

Publisher

Death Studies

Date

1999

Subject

Humans; Male; United States; Cohort Studies; Follow-Up Studies; Religion and Psychology; Adaptation; Psychological; bereavement; Caregivers/psychology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/psychology; Homosexuality; Male/psychology; San Francisco

Description

This article is a follow-up study of bereaved caregiving male partners of men with AIDS (T.A. Richards & S. Folkman, 1997). The earlier study examined spiritual beliefs, experiences, and practices reported in interviews with 125 caregivers conducted 2 and 4 weeks following bereavement. This follow-up study reports qualitative and quantitative data from 70 members of the earlier cohort, collected 3 to 4 years later, regarding the presence of spiritual phenomena. Spirituality increased or deepened in 77% of the entire cohort. An ongoing relationship with the deceased partner was reported by 70% of the cohort. The use of spirituality as coping appeared to decline as the bereaved moved further in time from the loss. Instead, spirituality was identified as a personal governing influence that provided value and direction to the individual. In general, relationships between the expression of spirituality and mood, coping, and physical health symptoms were not statistically significant owing to small samples, but there were medium effect sizes.
1999

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Type

Journal Article

Citation List Month

Backlog

Citation

Richards TA; Acree M; Folkman S, “Spiritual aspects of loss among partners of men with AIDS: postbereavement follow-up,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 28, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/12073.