Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-23DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454492
Wallace Chi Ho Chan, Yunjun Li, Doi-Yun Yick, Helen Wing Yuk Tse
{"title":"Funeral support services for socio-economically deprived bereaved people in Hong Kong: An exploratory study of their effectiveness.","authors":"Wallace Chi Ho Chan, Yunjun Li, Doi-Yun Yick, Helen Wing Yuk Tse","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454492","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of funeral support services for socio-economically deprived bereaved people in Hong Kong. Via a questionnaire, service users were asked to report their psychosocial status in different domains before and after the services. A quasi-experimental design was also used to compare service users with non-service users in different psychosocial domains after the funerals had taken place. Findings showed that service users indicated positive changes after the use of the services, such as reduced negative emotions and enhanced understanding of how post-death matters/funerals could be handled. This study provides preliminary evidence of the benefits of funeral support services and suggests the importance of funeral support for socio-economically deprived bereaved people. Findings may help reflect on the provision and accessibility of funeral support services in the community and give insights into the way formal bereavement service providers may better support bereaved people in the community.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-23DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2452474
Ayşe Aslantürk, Coşkun Arslan
{"title":"Turkish adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Grief Impairment Scale.","authors":"Ayşe Aslantürk, Coşkun Arslan","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2452474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2452474","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSRACTGrief usually proceeds in a normal course, but sometimes it may become dysfunctional. So psychometrically robust assessments are needed to identify abnormal grief. This study aimed to adapt the Grief Impairment Scale to Turkish and explore its psychometric properties with a sample of 364 bereaved adults. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional factor structure of the 5-item GIS. The Turkish version of the GIS demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (<i>α= .88, ω= .88</i>). The convergent validity analysis revealed a positive correlation between the GIS and traumatic grief (<i>r</i> = .74, <i>p</i> < .001), depression (<i>r</i> = .65, <i>p</i> < .001), anxiety (<i>r</i> = .57, <i>p</i> < .001), and stress (<i>r</i> = .63, <i>p</i> < .001) with strong effect sizes. The study results showed that the GIS is an effective tool for measuring grief-related functional impairment in the Turkish cultural context following the loss of a loved one.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454493
Roxana Alvarado
{"title":"Pandemic antigones: The role of women in shaping funeral practices in Chile.","authors":"Roxana Alvarado","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454493","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study, conducted in 2020, investigates the impact of health restrictions on funeral rites during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, based on the experience of women who took part in these rites. Using Antigone's tragedy as a theoretical framework, it explores the tension between the moral law of honoring the deceased and the universal law manifested in pandemic-related restrictions-four semi-structured online interviews with women in Santiago who engaged in adapted funeral practices. The qualitative analysis revealed that participants developed innovative rituals to maintain the dignity of farewells and reintegrate the deceased into public and symbolic spheres, such as virtual gatherings and personalized tributes. These findings illustrate the resilience and creativity of individuals in preserving cultural practices under rigid health policies, highlighting the need for regulations that respect cultural and personal values while ensuring public health.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454498
Ronit D Leichtentritt, Michal Mahat Shamir
{"title":"Continuing bonds and the posthumous child.","authors":"Ronit D Leichtentritt, Michal Mahat Shamir","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454498","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The strategies that bereaved individuals use to establish an ongoing bond with the deceased have attracted considerable attention. However, the narratives of young widows pregnant at the time of their partner's death reveal unique strategies that have not yet received attention in the literature. This interpretive phenomenological research explores the strategies employed by 13 Israeli widows who lost their partners while pregnant. Continuing bond strategies were found to be associated with the trajectory of the posthumous child's life, beginning with the stages of pregnancy, childbirth, baby naming, and the child's resemblance to the deceased. The involvement of the newborn in the widows' post-death relationship with their deceased husband establishes a new sense of time-a relational one-in which they navigate between the past, present, and future, blurring boundaries and experiencing moments of stopped time. Implications are discussed in relation to the \"replacement child\" phenomenon.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454505
Karima Joy, Susan Cadell, Elizabeth Peter, Pia Kontos
{"title":"\"The living need care\": Experiences of bereaved workers in precarious employment.","authors":"Karima Joy, Susan Cadell, Elizabeth Peter, Pia Kontos","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454505","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bereavement scholarship predominantly examines psychological aspects of grief, which neglects the role of social, economic, and political factors that shape the space to accommodate these experiences. Responding to calls for enhancing bereavement care, this research explores bereavement accommodation for workers in precarious employment in Ontario, Canada. Drawing on critical qualitative research and feminist ethics, this study employed in-depth interviews to generate knowledge on the everyday experiences of bereaved workers in precarious employment. Participants expressed they were uninformed and unprepared for grief and practical bereavement labor, and that navigating the current context created tension, stress, exhaustion, isolation, and stigma. We argue the systemic neglect of bereavement is driven by socio-political forces that devalue relationality, stigmatize emotions, and render bereavement an individual responsibility. This research informs broad recommendations, including enhancing grief literacy, establishing safeguards for precarious workers, and creating more responsive care pathways and strategies for addressing individual and collective grief.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2452490
Ben White, Rachel Feeney, Lindy Willmott
{"title":"Community knowledge of voluntary assisted dying: a cross-sectional survey of the public in Queensland, Australia.","authors":"Ben White, Rachel Feeney, Lindy Willmott","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2452490","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2452490","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This research, undertaken in Queensland, Australia aimed to explore community members' knowledge of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) 17 months after it became a lawful option. Adults living in Queensland (<i>n</i> = 1000) completed an online survey about knowledge of VAD as a legal option and awareness of how to access VAD and information about it. Quotas were set for age, gender and geographical region within Queensland. Only 33% (<i>n</i> = 329) of community members correctly identified that VAD is legal and fewer (26%, <i>n</i> = 257) reported that they would know how to access VAD if they wished to. Most community members (86%, <i>n</i> = 858) reported they would access information on VAD online, typically via search engines, and from health and medical practitioners, primarily doctors. Since lack of awareness and understanding are major barriers to seeking and accessing VAD, proactive measures are needed to increase awareness of VAD in the community and among potentially eligible patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2455282
Z Zeynep Selvili, Dennis Klass
{"title":"Continuing bonds or ongoing attachments? Exploring the distinction.","authors":"Z Zeynep Selvili, Dennis Klass","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2455282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2455282","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines how attachment and bonds, while addressing the same phenomenon, rest on fundamentally different assumptions. We highlight two key distinctions between attachment theory and the continuing bonds model of grief, which are often conflated in their approaches to ongoing relationships with the deceased. Attachment theory frames continuing bonds as compensatory adaptations necessitated by the impossibility of reunion, emphasizing individual adaptation within an intrapsychic framework that often overlooks cultural and social contexts. In contrast, the continuing bonds model views these connections as evolving extensions of preexisting relationships, situating grief within intersubjective, relational, and cultural dimensions. By exploring these differences, we advocate for a nuanced understanding of grief that integrates autonomy and interdependence, honoring the enduring connections that shape our shared humanity.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454510
S Shorer, M Mahat-Shamir
{"title":"Echoes of loss: An interpretive phenomenological study of the expressions of childhood bereavement after the death of a parent, in bereaved adults spousal and parental relationships.","authors":"S Shorer, M Mahat-Shamir","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454510","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454510","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This qualitative study explored the long-term effects of childhood bereavement after the death of a parent on adult spousal and parental relationships. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, we conducted in-depth interviews with nine Israeli adults who lost a parent in childhood. The study drew on the dual process model of coping with loss to examine how early loss of a parent is expressed through adult relationships. Three main themes emerged from the data: 1. perceptions of the early loss of a parent as trauma; 2. hypersensitivity and anxiety regarding further abandonment; and 3. 'live life to the fullest: restoration-oriented coping as growth stemming from a traumatic loss', which highlights possible posttraumatic growth. These findings contribute to our understanding of the complex, long-term impacts of childhood loss of a parent on adult relationships, describe some of its emotional mechanisms, and offer insights and clinical implications for clinicians and researchers working with bereaved individuals.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143022616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-21DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2024.2443438
Michaela Barnard, Joanna Smith, Tony Long
{"title":"Parents' lived experience of support through their neonate's end of life and grief journey: An interpretative phenomenology study.","authors":"Michaela Barnard, Joanna Smith, Tony Long","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2024.2443438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2024.2443438","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Medical and pharmacological advancements have influenced the ability to treat acutely ill neonates. However, complications of prematurity mean that death is unpreventable in some cases. The aim of this study was to explore parents' lived experiences of end of life care and their perceptions of support needs during and following the death of their baby in neonatal intensive care units in the United Kingdom. A qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis design was adopted. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with seven parents (five mothers and two fathers). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged from the analysis: 'the enormity of grief', 'redefining self and social relations', 'trying to survive' and 'routes to improved support'. Parents' experiences of neonatal care after the death of their baby were variable but all narratives highlight a grief that is deep and overwhelming. The Neonatal Grief Sandstorm visual tool, developed from the findings, has potential to support bereavement conversations between health professionals and parents.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2025-01-20DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2454504
Daniel Martínez-Esquivel, Alfonso Miguel García-Hernández
{"title":"\"I know she's there\" meanings of continuing bonds for bereaved Costa Rican men: a qualitative study.","authors":"Daniel Martínez-Esquivel, Alfonso Miguel García-Hernández","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2025.2454504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2454504","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This qualitative study addresses a gap in knowledge regarding men's experience of the grieving process. Our limited understanding of the topic hinders the development of targeted support services. The study analyzes the meanings of continuing bonds for bereaved men in Costa Rica. It conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve participants; these were guided by a framework focusing on three key areas: mediators of mourning, continuing bonds, and meaning reconstruction. An analysis revealed five themes: loss emblems, mourners' ecology, memory landscapes, sense-based realities, and symbolic images. These themes suggest that the meanings attributed to continuing bonds facilitated the participants' personal growth, including the adoption of new values and personality changes, ultimately aiding adaptation to loss. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of men's grieving process, provide information on the development of gender-specific interventions for men and highlight the need for further research.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143001771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}