Child death in Chinese culture

The traditional understanding of grief and bereavement in the West, which is predominantly derived from studies on conjugal bereavement, has often been used as a benchmark from which other forms of grief are compared. As often is the case, treatment follows research, so it is not unreasonable to predict that the "one size fits all" approach to helping individuals with their losses would be the norm.; In recent years the field of thanatology has become more discriminatory. In published studies done in the North American milieu, there is a move from studies of generalized bereavement to more specific forms of losses. But although North American society has in recent years become more multi-ethnic, the bulk of these studies still tended to focus on the grief reactions of predominantly white subjects. The result, in the absence of meaningful data on populations not of the predominant English literate class, is to again generalize grief reactions, specific to type of losses, across cultures.; In response to the dearth of research of the phenomena of child loss in Chinese culture, a grounded theory method was chosen to gather empirical data to explore the grief experience of these parents. Bereaved Chinese parents (n=8) living on the island of Singapore were recruited for this qualitative study.; The results showed that many factors impacted on the resolution of child loss. External factors feature more prominently than internal ones. These external factors included family support, the role of authority figures (particularly of the medical and helping profession), an organizing religion, and societal beliefs surrounding child loss and consequently norms surrounding proper resolution of grief. Internal factors that encompass the participants' spiritual, emotional, and cognitive states were subsumed under the external factors. The cultural, philosophical, and historical forces that reflect these findings were examined. Culturally competent treatment implications were also discussed.