Death studies
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We investigated longitudinally parental perceptions of siblings' bereavement after childhood cancer death. Parents were interviewed 6 months (n = 25) and 18 months (n = 75) post-death. ⋯ The following themes emerged: (a) expression of grief missing deceased child (verbally, crying), behavioral problems, difficulty understanding the meaning of death (pre-schoolers), and avoiding talking with parents about feelings (adolescents); (b) what helps siblings grief moving on, talking about deceased child and social support; (c) relationship with parents improved for most siblings; and (d) bond with deceased sibling: pretend-play (preschoolers), dreaming, and career choices (adolescents). Over time, themes reflected stability and change.
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This study explored helping professionals' views on death work competencies. A total of 176 helping professionals were invited to state what the necessary competencies in death work are. Content analysis was conducted. ⋯ Self-competence was further categorized into 3 themes: (a) personal resources, (b) existential coping, and (c) emotional coping. Findings reflect helping professionals' emphasis on the role of self and personal preparation in doing death work. Implications on future death education and training for helping professionals were discussed.
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To investigate the prevalence of significant loss, potential complicated grief (CG), and its contributing factors, we conducted a nationwide random sampling survey of Japanese adults aged 18 or older (N = 1,343) using a self-rating Japanese-language version of the Complicated Grief Brief Screen. Among them, 37.0% experienced their most significant loss by expected non-violent death, 17.9% by unexpected non-violent death, and 5.5% by violent death. The mean length of time since the loss was 11.9 years (SD = 11.6). ⋯ Women who had lost a child by sudden or violent death showed significantly higher CG scores, but men did not. By comparison, those (particularly men) who had lost a partner by expected or sudden nonviolent death showed significantly higher CG scores. The implications of the findings are discussed.
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The authors examined how many bereaved relatives of Norwegian tourists who perished in the 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami had visited the site of death and the most important outcome from the visit. We conducted in-depth interviews (n = 110) and used self-report questionnaires (Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Inventory of Complicated Grief and General Health Questionnaire) in a total of 130 first-degree family members 2 years post-disaster. ⋯ Those who had visited the site of death reported lower avoidance behavior and higher degree of acceptance of the loss than non-visitors. Although this could be a cause as well as a consequence of the visit, visiting the site of death may be an important part of the support offered to bereaved families after experiencing a disaster loss.
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Death and rituals performed after death reflect and reproduce social distinctions despite death's popular reputation as a great leveler. This study examines expressions of religiosity and constructions of death in Turkish death announcements, paying particular attention to gendered, ethnic, and temporal variations as well as markers of status and cultural distinction. Death announcements in Turkey occupy a liminal position between obituaries and death notices: Unlike obituaries, no editorial decisions are involved in their publications. ⋯ These large and decentralized collections of private decisions display rigid genre characteristics involving formulaic phrases but also change over time to reflect social, cultural, and economic changes in Turkish society. The present study focuses on a sample (N = 2,812) of death announcements in a major Turkish daily newspaper (Hürriyet) from 1970 to 2009. Results show that death announcements in Turkey increasingly rely on an emotional tone of loss and bereavement that replace constructions of death in a more detached and distant language and that religious and secular preferences in the language of announcements are an important domain in which cultural battles are fought and the participation patterns of new middle classes are negotiated.