'When she gets scared, I get scared': The co -construction of meaning between mother and child following a young father's death

Approximately 5% of school-age children will experience the death of a parent before these children graduate from high school (Harris, 1995; Tennant, 1988). While the long-term psychological implications of parental loss are not well understood, in the short term, children experience a variety of disruptions and stresses. Historically, bereavement has been studied within an individual context, with little acknowledgement of the impact of family dynamics on grief. With the more recent research of Phyllis Silverman, Ester Shapiro, and Janice Nadeau, this orientation is changing to include a greater focus on the family.;My dissertation consists of three related essays concerning the family dynamics of grieving. The first summarizes the results of a qualitative study using a sub-sample of data from the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Child Bereavement Study (Silverman & Worden, 1993). In this essay, I discuss my major findings: (1) Families experiencing paternal death must redefine their concept of "family." (2) The death of a father/husband may precipitate a reexamination of self. (3) The developmental capacities of a surviving mother may constrain the ways in which her children experience their loss and influence the co-construction of meaning.;My second essay discusses the two qualitative methods I use to conduct my analysis: discourse analysis strategies (e.g., Bamberg & Frye, 1991; Peterson & McCabe, 1983) and the Listening Guide (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2003). In previous research, I tested the efficacy of these two methods in describing the meaning-making processes of family members following the death of a young father (Galginaitis, 2001). In this essay, I examine the ways in which discourse analysis and the Listening Guide point the researcher down different interpretive paths, and the implications of these differences.;Essay 3 is devoted to discussing how helping professionals and volunteers can employ a series of principles to support grieving families. I developed this set of principles based on my personal and professional experience; my review of existing research on grieving; my qualitative study of families experiencing paternal loss; and a preventive model for working with families suffering depression (Beardslee, 2002b).