Continuing bonds reported by bereaved individuals in Ecuador
Keywords:
continuing bonds, bereavement, culture, qualitative, EcuadorAbstract
AbstractThis qualitative study explored how bereaved individuals (N = 49) from Ecuador experienced continuing bonds with their deceased loved ones. Ninety-eight per cent of participants reported having experienced purposeful bonds (eg. keeping personal belongings/photographs, talking/praying to the deceased, enjoying activities the deceased participated in while alive, visiting cemetery). Sixty-one per cent reported non-purposeful bonds (eg. dreams about deceased, visits from deceased). The presence and effects of these bonds could be both comforting (71%) or discomforting (55%) for participants. Additional research is needed to better understand how we can provide culturally sensitive care to bereaved populations.
References
Arnold, J, Gemma, PB and Cushman, LF. 2005. Exploring parental grief: combining quantitative and qualitative measures. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 19(6): 245–255.
Asai, M, Fujimori, M, Akizuki, N, Inagaki, M, Matsui, Y and Uchitomi, Y. 2010. Psychological states and coping strategies after bereavement among the spouses of cancer patients: a qualitative study. Psycho-Oncology, 19(1): 38–45.
Chan, C, Chow, A, Ho, S, Tsui, Y, Tin, A, Koo, B and Koo, E. 2005. The experience of Chinese bereaved persons: a preliminary study of meaning making and continuing bonds. Death Studies, 10(29): 923–947.
Compas, BE, Connor-Smith, JK, Saltzman, H, Thomsen, AH and Wadsworth, ME. 2001. Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: problems, progress, and potential in theory and research. Psychological Bulletin, 1(127): 87–127.
Davies, R. 2005. Mothers’ stories of loss: their need to be with their dying child and their child's body after death. Journal of Child Health Care, 9(4): 288–300.
Ecuador population below poverty line . Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 2011 . Available from: www.indexmundi.com/ecuador/population_below_poverty_line.html (accessed 28 October 2011) .
Field, NP and Friedrichs, M. 2004. Continuing bonds in coping with the death of a husband. Death Studies, 28(7): 597–620.
Field, N, Orsini, L, Gavish, R and Packman, W. 2009. Role of attachment in response to pet loss. Death Studies, 4(33): 334–355.
Foster, TL, Gilmer, MJ, Davies, B, Dietrich, M, Barrera, M, Fairclough, DL, Vannatta, K and Gerhardt, CA. 2011. Comparison of continuing bonds reported by parents and siblings after a child's death from cancer. Death Studies, 35(5): 420–440.
Guy, P and Holloway, M. 2007. Drug-related deaths and the ‘special deaths’ of late modernity. Sociology, 1(41): 83–96.
Harms S , Jack S , Ssebunnya J , Kizza R 2010 . The orphaning experience: descriptions from Ugandan youth who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS . Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 4 6 . Available from: www.capmh.com/content/4/1/6 [accessed 26 May 2012] .
Hickey, G and Kipping, C. 1996. A multi-stage approach to the coding of data from open-ended questions. Nurse Researcher, 4(1): 81–91.
Hussein, H and Oyebode, JR. 2009. Influences of religion and culture on continuing bonds in a sample of British Muslims of Pakistani origin. Death Studies, 33(10): 890–912.
Ishida, M, Onishi, H, Wada, M, Wada, T, Uchitomi, Y and Nomura, S. 2010. Bereavement dream? Successful antidepressant treatment for bereavement-related distressing dreams in patients with major depression. Palliative Supportive Care, 8(1): 95–8.
Khosravan, S, Salehi, S, Ahmadi, F, Sharif, F and Zamani, A. 2010. Experiences of widows with children: a qualitative study about spousal death in Iran. Nursing & Health Sciences, 12(2): 205–211.
Klass, D. 2001. Continuing bonds in the resolution of grief in Japan and North America. American Behavioral Scientist, 5(44): 742–763.
Klass, D, Silverman, PR and Nickman, SL. 1996. Continuing bonds: new understandings of grief, Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
Krause, N and Bastida, E. 2010. Exploring the interface between religion and contact with the dead among older Mexican Americans. Review of Religious Research, 51(1): 5–20.
Lalande, KM and Bonanno, GA. 2006. Culture and continuing bonds: a prospective comparison of bereavement in the United States and the People's Republic of China. Death Studies, 4(30): 303–324.
Laurie, A and Neimeyer, R. 2008. African Americans in bereavement: grief as a function of ethnicity. Omega, 27(2): 173–193.
Li, J, Laursen, TM, Precht, DH, Olsen, J and Mortensen, PB. 2005. Hospitalization for mental illness among parents after the death of a child. New England Journal of Medicine, 352(12): 1190–1196.
LoBiondo-Wood, G and Haber, J. 2006. Nursing research: methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice, 6th ed, St. Louis: Mosby Elsevier.
Marshall, R and Sutherland, P. 2008. The social relations of bereavement in the Caribbean. Omega, 57(1): 21–34.
Neimeyer, RA, Baldwin, SA and Gillies, J. 2006. Continuing bonds and reconstructing meaning: mitigating complications in bereavement. Death Studies, 8(30): 715–738.
Oliver, LE. 1999. Effects of a child's death on the marital relationship: a review. Omega, 39(3): 197–228.
Packman, W, Horsley, H, Davies, B and Kramer, R. 2006. Sibling bereavement and continuing Bonds. Death Studies, 30(9): 817–841.
Riches, G and Dawson, P. 1998. Spoiled memories: problems of grief resolution in families bereaved through murder. Mortality, 2(3): 143–159.
Ronen, R, Packman, W, Field, NP, Davies, B, Kramer, R and Long, JK. 2009. The relationship between grief adjustment and continuing bonds for parents who have lost a child. Omega, 60(1): 1–31.
Strauss, AL and Corbin, JM. 1990. Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Tyson-Rawson, K. 1996. “Relationship and heritage: manifestations of ongoing attachment following father death”. In Continuing bonds: new understandings of grief, Edited by: Klass, D, Silverman, P and S Nickman, S. 125–145. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis.
Walker, AC and Thompson, T. 2009. Muscogee Creek spirituality and meaning of death. Omega, 59(2): 129–146.
Woo, IMH and Chan, CLW. 2010. Management of survival guilt by a Chinese widower through the use of continuing bonds. Mortality, 15(1): 38–46.
