Parental Grief After Traumatic Death: A Qualitative Study In Malaysia
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Date
2016-07
Authors
Mohamed Hussin, Nur Atikah
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Abstract
The death of a child is one of the most painful experiences to the parents. There are studies that observed the effects of parental grief to the health, psychological and social condition of the bereaved parents. Yet, most of the studies were conducted in Western culture. This study is aimed at understanding the experience of bereaved parents in Malaysia, the coping mechanisms, the support system received and the grieving patterns after the traumatic death of their children. This study employed phenomenology study as a research design. This qualitative study involved open-ended interviews administered to 11 bereaved parents who experienced the death of their child due to accidents (n=9) and homicide (n=2). The parents were interviewed individually. The interviews comprised of items that assessed the experience, coping mechanism, support system and their grieving patterns. The results were analyzed using thematic analysis. ATLAS.ti was used to identify the themes and verified the analysis. Some of themes discovered were bereaved parents were feeling uncertainty, blaming, difficult to accept and feeling hopelessness when they learned about their deceased children`s condition. After the traumatic death, the bereaved parents coped with the losses by using sense making (n=6), benefits finding (n=3), compared with others (n=6), masculinity coping (n=2), religion coping (n=6), venting coping (n=7), problem solving (n=3), avoidance coping (n=5), seeking support coping (n=5), adaptive coping (n=3) and physical activities (n=3). They also reported to receive support from their spouses (n=4), family (n=6) and friends (n=3). However, there were two bereaved parents reported to
not receive any support system. After years, the bereaved parents reported to feel positively such as tougher (n=4), more serene (n=3), and more blessed (n=1) and negatively such as feeling dissatisfied (n=6) and at risk of having depressive disorder (n=3). This study has also take into the account, the aspects on religious background and culture as the factors that influenced the grieving responses among the bereaved parents after the traumatic death of their children. This study eventually revealed that the bereaved parents were open to consider for professional helps. This indicates the possibility to implement appropriate grief intervention inspired by the previous literature and the responses from the bereaved parents. This proposed model of intervention emphasizes on four stages including biopsychosocial assessment, counseling, education and empowerment. Collaboration from other authorities such as medical team, religious authority and legal advisor is essential in order to implement the model of intervention. Yet, it has to emphasize on the sensitivity regarding religious background and culture as vital to make sure the success of this model of intervention.
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Keywords
The effects of parental grief to the health, psychological and , social condition of the bereaved parents.