Parental suicide
The long-term impact on children and young people
Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper reports on a work-in-progress research project exploring adults' experiences of childhood or adult losses after parental suicide. Suicide is the violent and immediate severing of the parent-child relationship, and findings from the research indicate that family communication in its aftermath may be severely disrupted. The censoring of grief, ambiguity of stories told to the bereaved, avoidance of details and suppressing of grief are common threads. Consequently, the grief process may be delayed. The search for the why and how of the suicide, the memorialising, and the finding of a connection with the dead parent may take place many years later.
References
Árnason, A. 2000. Biography, bereavement, story.. Mortality, 5(2): 189–204.
Barlow, C and Coleman, H. 2003. The healing alliance: how families use social support after a suicide.. Omega, 47(3): 187–201.
Barrett, T W and Scott, T B. 1990. Suicide bereavement and recovery patterns compared with nonsuicide bereavement patterns.. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 20(1): 1–15.
Bowen, M. 1994. Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. London: Jason Aronson.
Cleiren, M, Diekstra, R, Kerhof, A and van der Wal, J. 1994. Mode of death and kinship in bereavement: focusing on ‘who’ rather than ‘how.’. Crisis, 15(1): 22–36.
Cerel, J, Fristad, M A, Weller, E B and Weller, R. 2002. Suicide of a parent: child and adolescent bereavement.. The Prevention Researcher, 9(2): 9–10.
Demi, A S and Howell, C. 1991. Hiding and healing: resolving the suicide of a parent or sibling.. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, December(6): 350–356.
Dunne-Maxim, K, Dunne, E J and Hauser, M J. 1987. “When children are suicide survivors.”. In Suicide and its Aftermath. Understanding and Counselling the Survivors. Edited by: Dunne, E J, McIntosh, J and Dunne-Maxim, K. 234–244. London: WW Norton.
Ellenbogen, S and Gratton, F. 2001. Do they suffer more? Reflections on research comparing suicide survivors to other survivors.. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31(1): 83–90.
Hauser, M. 1987. “Special aspects of grief after suicide.”. In Suicide and its Aftermath: Understanding and Counseling the Survivors. Edited by: Dunne, E J, McIntosh, J and Dunne-Maxim, K. London: WW Norton.
Holland, J. 2001. Understanding Children's Experiences of Parental Bereavement. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Klass, D, Silverman, P R and Nickman, S L. 1996. Continuing Bonds. London: Taylor and Francis.
McIntosh, J and Kelly, L D. 1992. Survivors' reactions: suicide vs other causes.. Crisis, 13(2): 82–93.
McIntosh, J L. 1993. Control group studies of suicide survivors: a review and critique.. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 23(2): 146–161.
Mitchell, A M, Kim, Y, Prigerson, H G and Mortimer-Stephens, M. 2004. Complicated grief in survivors of suicide.. Crisis, 25(1): 12–18.
Nelson, B J and Frantz, T T. 1996. Family interactions of suicide survivors and survivors of non-suicidal death.. Omega, 33(2): 131–146.
Pfeffer, C R, Martins, PMann, J. 1997. Child survivors of suicide: psychosocial characteristics.. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36: 65–74.
Range, L M and Niss, N M. 1990. Long-term bereavement from suicide, homicide, accidents and natural deaths.. Death Studies, 14: 423–433.
Raphael, B. 1984. The Anatomy of Bereavement. London: Hutchinson.
Requarth, M. 2006. After a Parent's Suicide. Sebastopol, CA, , USA: Healing Arts Press.
Riches, G and Dawson, P. 1998. Lost children, living memories: the role of photographs in processes of grief and adjustment among bereaved parent.. Death Studies, 22: 121–140.
Rosenblatt, P and Elde, C. 1990. Shared reminiscence about a deceased parent: implications for grief education and grief counselling.. Family Relations, April 1990: 206–210.
Schoka, Traylor E, Hayslip, B JR, Kaminski, P L and York, C. 2003. Relationships between grief and family system characteristics: a cross lagged longitudinal analysis.. Death Studies, 27: 575–601.
Shapiro, E R. 1994. Grief as a Family Process: A Developmental Approach to Clinical Practice. New York: Guildford Press.
Shepherd, D and Barraclough, B M. 1974. The aftermath of suicide.. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2: 600–603.
Sethi, S and Bhargava, S C. 2003. Child and adolescent survivors of suicide.. Crisis, 24(1): 4–6.
Silverman, E, Range, L and Overholser, J. 1994-95. Bereavement from suicide as compared to other forms of bereavement.. Omega, 30(1): 41–51.
Valentine, C. 2008. Bereavement Narratives. London: Routledge.
Walter, T. 1996. A new model of grief: bereavement and biography.. Mortality, 1(1): 7–25.
Wertheimer, A. 2001. A Special Scar: The Experiences of People Bereaved by Suicide, , 2nd edn. Hove, Sussex, , UK: Brunner-Routledge.
Worden, J W. 1996. Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies. London: Guildford Press.
