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Buffers for the Bereaved: the Impact of Social Factors On the Emotional Health of Bereaving Parents

Emotional health of bereaving parents (N = 62; control N = 56) were explored 5 years after the death of a child (age 0-12) in Israel. The Symptom Check List-90 was utilized as the primary measurement instrument. Comparisons to controls according to geographic area of birth indicated more interpersonal (over)sensitivity, obsessive-compulsiveness and anxiety among Asia/African born parents as compared to either European/American or Israeli-born. All geographical groupings of bereaving parents indicated significantly greater somatic concerns than their respective controls. The college-educated Israeli-born bereaving parents indicated significantly healthier SCL-90 scores than similarly educated European/American-born bereaving parents. This was in contrast to the trend in which European-American-born parents (regardless of educational level) exhibited scores indicating the least symptomatology.

Bereaving parents are a uniquely problematic population at risk. Deaths of infants and children produce isolation and diffusion among family members. 8,18 Furthermore, the scant literature indicates that the death of a child produces higher intensities of bereavement, as well as the widest range of reactions among parents as compared to those who experience the death of either a spouse or parent. 17 Family stability and equilibrium is disturbed. Indeed, higher than average rates of marital discord occur between parents after the loss of a child. 7,3

Bereavement itself carries a considerable increased risk of morbidity and mortality.^11, 12 Levav indicates that the increased risk of mortality for parents is quite high within a 5-year period after the death of their child.⁹ Parkes and Brown report that the bereaved differ significantly from the non-bereaved in being sicker and being admitted to the hospital more in the year following loss. They also noted increased consumption of alcohol, tobacco and tranquilizers and more disturbances of appetite, weight and sleep.¹¹ In addition; more evidence of strain and depression was indicated among the bereaved than among the non-bereaved.¹¹

Bereaving parents react to their loss through grief. This often manifests itself through resistance to change — a reluctance to give up possessions, relationship, status and expect ations. One approach to measuring this resistance to change is vis-a-vis levels of emotional symptomatology, e.g. depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsiveness. In a wider sense, emotional health parameters may be utilized as a means of calibrating resistance to change and response to loss.

Roskin¹⁵ in his work with bereaving parents in Israel reported that even 5 years after their child died, bereaving parents indicated less emotional health than comparable controls. Bereaving mothers were more somatic and interpersonally (over)sensitive than control mothers. Bereaving fathers indicated only more somatic complaints than control fathers.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 30, No. 4, 311-320 (1984)
DOI: 10.1177/002076408403000408


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