{"title":"Educating for the end: A decade of death literacy interventions in U.S. health professions training.","authors":"Autumn Decker, Raven H Weaver, Cory Bolkan, Tracy Klein, Kathryn Bruzios","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693535","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most healthcare professionals in medicine, nursing, social work, counseling, and pharmacy receive little formal end-of-life education, and the extent of incorporating culturally informed death education into training remains unclear. This scoping review (N = 18) examined death literacy interventions in U.S.-based health professional education and identified which death literacy components (factual, practical, experiential, and community) were addressed. Most interventions targeted medical and nursing students; fewer than half incorporated cultural content, which varied considerably in depth and approach. Common intervention strategies included didactic learning, experiential activities, reflective writing, and peer/expert discussions. Factual death literacy was most frequently addressed; community death literacy was rarely represented. Most interventions were single-site and relied on quasi-experimental or qualitative designs, highlighting the early-stage and limited rigor of existing evidence. Greater attention to cultural context and community engagement may improve practitioners' readiness, competence, and emotional capacity to support dying individuals, their families, and their own response to death.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148338085","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}
{"title":"Spraying the horror: Street art as social response to collective trauma.","authors":"Hilit Erel-Brodsky, Ayelet Oreg, Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2688163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2688163","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examines street art created in Israel following the October 7, 2023 massacre and the ensuing war through the lens of Terror Management Theory (TMT). Using digital ethnography and visual analysis, we examined 237 street artworks created across Israeli cities during the first six months following the attack. The artworks reflected heightened mortality salience and existential anxiety through recurring visual symbols, captions, and commemorative representations. The analysis identified themes corresponding to the three anxiety-buffering mechanisms proposed by TMT: reinforcement of collective worldviews, enhancement of self-esteem, and the search for interpersonal proximity, including symbolic bonds with the deceased. At the same time, the findings revealed tensions between attempts to restore meaning and experiences of fragmentation, uncertainty, and disruption. Street art following collective trauma may function both as a symbolic coping response and as a public space in which social and existential destabilization becomes visible.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148338033","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 : 2026-06-26DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2693950
Donna Levin, Molly Quartermaine, Andrea Gavshon, Christopher Sealey, Lauren J Breen
{"title":"Family dynamics and the grieving process: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.","authors":"Donna Levin, Molly Quartermaine, Andrea Gavshon, Christopher Sealey, Lauren J Breen","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grief is typically conceptualized as an individual process, yet it unfolds within families and is shaped by its dynamics. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize evidence examining how family dynamics influence grief responses. A pre-registered review (PROSPERO registration: CRD420251061451) was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Four databases (CINAHL, Scopus, PsycINFO, Medline) and gray literature were searched to identify studies that reported original data, involved two or more members of multiple families, and focused on post-death grief, with the last search in June 2025, yielding 7,806 records. Twenty-nine studies met inclusion criteria and methodological quality was assessed. Findings were narratively synthesized into four themes: communication and cohesion, caregiver influence on child adjustment, roles and reorganization, and cultural and societal influence. Evidence was limited by self-report measures, retrospective data, and cross-sectional designs. Findings suggest that addressing family dynamics in clinical practice, community programs, and policy may promote healthier adaptation following bereavement.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148338046","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 : 2026-06-25DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2693530
Allie Farone, Robert F Leeman, Jennifer W Applebaum
{"title":"A qualitative study using metacognition to evaluate the impacts of pet ownership and loss on existential thinking, mortality acceptance, and grief.","authors":"Allie Farone, Robert F Leeman, Jennifer W Applebaum","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693530","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Experiencing pet loss can shape the ways people cope with grief and may lead to increased existential thinking. This study investigated metacognition regarding ways owning or losing a pet may impact existential thinking and processing grief and mortality. Participants (n = 36; 67% Women) ranged in age from 17 to 60 (M = 24). The data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), yielding six themes: afterlife belief, concern for others, animal equality, coping with human loss, death anxiety, and life perceptions. People felt losing a pet at a young age had better prepared them for experiencing human loss later and/or increased their understanding of the grieving process. Other responses indicated an increase in existential thinking and death anxiety resulting from considering their own death or the ephemerality of life. Participants' metacognitive understandings showed that the bond formed between pet and owner can have profound effects on how people think and behave.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148316235","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 : 2026-06-24DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2693537
Jennifer Currin-McCulloch, Wendy Packman, Lori Kogan, Cori Bussolari, Olivia Benesch
{"title":"Honoring lives and legacies: Continuing bonds and meaning-making in dog obituaries across companion, therapy, and K9 contexts.","authors":"Jennifer Currin-McCulloch, Wendy Packman, Lori Kogan, Cori Bussolari, Olivia Benesch","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693537","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The death of a dog often results in profound grief that is often disenfranchized. While memorialization practices such as obituary writing are increasingly used by bereaved owners, little is known about how these narratives vary across human-dog relationship contexts or how they function in meaning-making and continuing bonds following loss. This exploratory qualitative study examined how online obituary and memorial narratives reflect grief, continuing bonds, and legacy construction among companion dog owners, therapy dog handlers, and police K9 handlers. A thematic analysis was conducted on 102 publicly available online memorials and focused on how these narratives reflected relationship formation and attachment; role-based identities; experiences of grief and loss; and expressions of continuing bonds and legacy. Across all groups, obituaries functioned as sources for meaning-making, validation, and legacy construction; yet each group's writing reflected nuanced integration of emotional intimacy, continuing bonds expressions, and presentation of social roles and value.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148307434","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}
{"title":"Implementing assisted dying in rural and remote Australia and comparable jurisdictions: A scoping review.","authors":"Melissa Hanson, Samantha Jakimowicz, Pauletta Irwin, Pauline Catherine Gillan","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693543","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693543","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Assisted dying presents unique challenges in rural and remote communities, where geographic isolation, cultural norms, and service limitations shape access and experience. This scoping review synthesized peer-reviewed and grey literature from Australia and comparable jurisdictions (primarily Canada, one study from India) identifying key themes relating to assisted dying implementation in rural and remote contexts. Five themes emerged: legislative and policy frameworks; cultural, social, and ethical considerations; access and equity in service provision; healthcare provider roles and experiences; and family and community impact. Findings highlight how restrictive telehealth laws, provider scarcity, and administrative burden disproportionately affect rural and remote patients. Cultural and institutional dynamics influence acceptance, while families face emotional, logistical, and social pressures. Innovative models such as nurse practitioner inclusion, care navigation, and culturally safe outreach offer potential solutions. Assisted dying is not merely a clinical procedure but a socially embedded practice. Equitable access requires coordinated legal, relational, and infrastructural reforms.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-23"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148316178","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 : 2026-06-23DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2693531
Jinling Zhang
{"title":"\"I sent a voice note to heaven, and grandma replied\": AI grief-tech, relational privacy, and the Remaking of Chinese Kinship.","authors":"Jinling Zhang","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2693531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2693531","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Drawing on grounded theory and 56 integrated cases in contemporary China, this study develops the concept of the <i>Remaking of Chinese Kinship through AI Grief-Tech</i> to explain how AI-mediated posthumous interaction reshapes bereavement, relational privacy, and family boundaries. This study theorizes AI grief-tech as a socio-technical mechanism through which the dead are reinserted into family life as communicatively accessible presences. Through systematic coding, five convergent dimensions are identified-Affective Continuity, Proxy Governance, Relational Exposure, Ritual Commercialization, and Kinship Reordering-which jointly produce a new regime of digitally mediated mourning. In this regime, remembrance becomes interactive, privacy becomes relationally negotiated, and kinship is reorganized through proxy authority, emotional governance, and platformized memorial practices. The study offers a mechanism-centered framework linking digital afterlife technologies, relational privacy, and Chinese kinship, demonstrating how AI grief-tech simultaneously extends attachment and reconfigures family order.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148307492","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 : 2026-06-21DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2673345
Sofia Morberg Jämterud, Anna Sandgren
{"title":"Unpacking ethical aspects in serious illness conversations.","authors":"Sofia Morberg Jämterud, Anna Sandgren","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2673345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2673345","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Serious illness conversations help patients who are at a high risk of mortality to discuss future care. The present empirical ethical study aims to explore health care professionals' views on the ethical dimension of serious illness conversations. The first theme identified was <i>providing and sharing prognoses in serious illness conversations</i>, which was analyzed with the concepts of <i>chronos</i>, <i>kairos</i> and the hermeneutics of time. We discuss the ethical tensions that emerge when prognosis is reduced to a measurement of time, as this risks diminishing hope. An alternative approach-informed by <i>kairos</i>-can support meaning-making and the broader exploration of hope. Furthermore, we present an analysis of the theme <i>autonomy and its relational aspects in serious illness conversations</i> and claim that an individualistic conception fails to convey the significance of relationships in the exercise of autonomy, as patients' goals and decisions are shaped within their relational context.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148293770","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}
{"title":"Changes in depressive symptoms following spousal bereavement among Japanese older individuals across the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES).","authors":"Isaku Kurotori, Kenjiro Kawaguchi, Satoshi Sunohara, Katsunori Kondo, Akiko Tamakoshi","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2690127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2690127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigated changes in depressive symptoms among older individuals who experienced spousal bereavement versus those who did not, comparing the periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a nationwide survey, we followed married participants (2016 or 2019) over a three-year period (2019 or 2022). Participants were categorized as either remaining married or having become widowed. We used a difference-in-differences approach to estimate the differential change in depressive symptoms associated with bereavement over time, comparing the periods before and during the pandemic. This model accounted for time-invariant group differences and common secular trends while adjusting for baseline covariates, including gender, age, socioeconomic status, health-related factors, and social factors, to balance the participants' backgrounds. Comparing the periods before and during the pandemic (2019-2022), depressive symptoms decreased in the bereaved group, whereas they increased in the non-bereaved, with consistent findings across multiple analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148293744","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 : 2026-06-20DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2688174
Neil McLean, Alison Standring, Xi Chen, Astrid Giron, Johan Jeanniot, Ambre Lecoq, Ruxu Tang, Jinghong Zhao
{"title":"Grief discourse in online support forums following miscarriage: A cross-cultural rhetorical move analysis of French and Mandarin initial messages.","authors":"Neil McLean, Alison Standring, Xi Chen, Astrid Giron, Johan Jeanniot, Ambre Lecoq, Ruxu Tang, Jinghong Zhao","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2688174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2688174","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigates what makes initial messages to online grief forums successful through a rhetorical move analysis of 165 messages following miscarriage (71 in French, 94 in Mandarin). Six moves are identified, four shared across both corpora, suggesting core membership-brokering strategies operate cross-culturally. Significant differences emerged in the steps through which these moves are realized. French messages demonstrated structured openings combining community and fetal greetings with background narration, reflecting norms of formality and social reciprocity, alongside a step of physical weakness in which loss is framed as bodily failure. Mandarin messages showed no equivalent greeting convention, foregrounding emotional expression as the dominant structural feature. A sixth move, \"Addressing the lost child,\" operates exclusively in the Mandarin data, addressing the child as a continuing presence accompanied by self-blame and apology. These findings demonstrate that effective grief support requires attentiveness to the relational and cultural frameworks through which communities express loss.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148293685","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}