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Influence Of Sex Of Parent, Timing Of Loss And Age Of Child On Unresolved Grief Among Bereaved Parents
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Bereavement
is an inevitable part of life. The individual's reaction to it depends
on higher relationship to the dead person. Bereavement brings about
feeling of sadness emptiness, dejection and a times depression. Death is
an unpleasant experience, and it forces people to make significant
adjustment in their lives. The Psychological adjustment required during
mourning include: coping with loneliness, finding new meaning for life,
coping with anger, coping with guilt and low self-esteem, and seeking
new sources of love.
Given the number of major adjustment require it
is no wonder that death of a loved one is such a stressful experience.
Bereaved parents often refers to their loss as the ultimate tragedy.
According to Alexy (1982), following the death of a child the grieving
process is usually experienced intensely and often includes periods of
numbness, despair, loneliness and isolation, anger, guilt and waves of
some other forms of negative emotion. Quite often, changes in
fundamental life values and philosophical beliefs are reported by some
as a consequence of experiencing the death of a child (Rando, 1984).
Even
though some attention has been paid to the psycho-social situation of
the widowed, less attention is being paid to the plight of bereaved
parents. The experience of loss among bereaved parents is usually
intensified because of the tenacious emotional bonding between parent
and child and the perception of the death as being unnatural (since
parents are expected to die before their children, all things being
equal).
Markusen. Owen, Fulton and Bendiksen (1978) while
considering a situation which can, lead to complication in the grieving
process of bereaved parents, focused on some of the adjustment problems
precipitated by the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). They identified
several features of (SIDS) that tend to be especially troublesome
including the unexpected nature of the death itself. It is more
difficult to bear since the cause and prevention might not be known. The
severing of Parent - infant bonding adjustment problems for surviving
siblings and many relations who might be demanding for explanations
concerning the sudden death can cause some distress for parents.
Bereaved Parents may sometimes cry unexpectedly, feel extremely lonely
and yet resist others' attempt to provide social support. There may also
be attempts to escape from the reminders of the loss while cultivating
memories of the dead child. Such parents behaviour may be ambivalent in
that while insisting that life is no more worth living after the death
of a child, they may resume their careers and be eager to take care of
their surviving children and take up the responsibilities of home life.
Hence, bereaved parents are usually put to the test of reconciling these
contradictory impulses.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study was carried out to examine the influence of sex of parent, timing of loss and age of child on unresolved grief among bereaved parents using bereaved civil servants in Alausa Secretariat, Lagos State as case study. Specifically, the study was aimed at determining if there is a difference between grief of parents who were bereaved within the last five years and those parents who were bereaved over five years ago; to find out if there is a difference on parental grief of mothers and ... Continue reading---
