Few thanatological studies focus on the impact of the death of a parent on college students between the ages of 17 and 23; a knowledge limitation that may be doing more harm than good through ignorance, avoidance, and inflexible policies. This phenomenological study used narrative inquiry to explore how students from a variety of backgrounds…

This paper addresses the role of 'emotional labour' in conducting sensitive research. As such it begins to unpick the emotional and embodied consequences of working with data which covers sensitive subjects, in this case perinatal death, and considers how such responses are likely to impact on the analysis of data. We draw upon two doctoral…

During the Second World War, Nordic countries witnessed a large-scale displacement of the population as around 70,000 Finnish children were evacuated to other Nordic countries. While up to 15,000 of them did not return to Finland, the majority travelled back, carrying multiple ruptures in their close relationships: first from their biological…

This study examined patterns of making meaning among 155 parents whose children died from a variety of violent and non-violent causes. Findings indicated 53% of violent loss survivors could not make sense of their loss, as compared to 32% of non-violent loss survivors. Overall, there was overlap in sense-making strategies across different causes…

Following the death of a child, parents are turning to alternative means of communication to express their grief. In this instrumental case study, the authors explore how 1 woman, Amy Ambrusko, communicates her grief experience on her blog, emotionally negotiating loss and parental grief. Guided by M. S. Miles's (1984) parental grief model, the…

Working with children and adolescents in the foster care system whose biological parents' parental rights have been, or are soon to be, terminated can present numerous challenges for counselors. Children in these situations often struggle with identification of conflicting feelings, grief resulting from the absence of the parent/parents, and…

Few studies have distinguished similarities and differences between continuing bonds as they appear in various bereaved populations, particularly parent versus sibling cohorts following a child's death. This mixed-method study compared how parents and siblings experienced continuing bonds in 40 families who lost a child to cancer. Thirty-six…

The authors investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in Japanese bereaved family members using a questionnaire. Participants were bereaved as a result of suicide and homicide (n = 51 and 49, respectively), with natural death (n = 56) as a control; and their relationships to the deceased were parent-child (n = 79), conjugal (n =…

This article is based on a qualitative study conducted in Singapore which examined different coping mechanisms engaged by Malay/Muslim bereaved youths following parental death. The research applied the revised Transactional Model of Stress and Coping as well as the Adolescent Coping Scale as a theoretical framework for analysing findings. Of the…

Important loss (death) in individuals' life may cause various kinds of bereavement reactions. Most of the individuals cope with bereavement effects in various ways and they adapt themselves to the new situation. On the other hand, some individuals may have problems in coping with and analyzing bereavement period effects caused by loss. Parent loss…

Youths (N = 57; mean age = 13.83 years) residing near Tororo, Uganda, were interviewed to obtain quantitative and qualitative data pertaining to negative life events, adjustment problems, coping, social support, self-worth, and hope. On average, they experienced nearly half of the 22 negative life events assessed. The experience of negative life…

Suicide among young people has become a growing concern in life in the 21st century and is a tragedy faced by an increasing number of families and in particular parents. This study set out to focus on the experiences of parents reentering the workplace following the death of a child by suicide. Although the immediate aftermath of experiencing…

This essay traverses back and forth across the institutionally-imposed boundary between storytelling and critical reflection to explore how the author's thinking about feminist pedagogical praxis has been irrevocably altered by the experience of losing a parent as well as facilitating mutual support groups for young adults whose parents or…

A longitudinal study was conducted among bereaved parents to examine the relationship between the circumstances surrounding the death of their child and psychological adjustment. Two hundred nineteen couples participated at 6, 13, and 20 months post-loss. Examination was made of two categories of factors: those that were determined by the…

This research investigated the relationship between clients' pursuit of avoidance (relative to approach) therapy goals and change in subjective well-being (SWB) from the beginning to the end of therapy. Results indicated that clients with more avoidance therapy goals evidenced a smaller increase in SWB over the course of therapy than those with…