Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T23:12:35.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adolescents' experiences of a parent's serious illness and death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2009

Lena Dehlin  and
Lena Mårtensson Reg
Lena Dehlin
Affiliation:
School of Social and Health Sciences, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden Research and Development Unit, Varberg Hospital, Varberg, Sweden
Lena Mårtensson Reg*
Affiliation:
Research and Development Unit, Varberg Hospital, Varberg, Sweden Sahlgrenska Academy, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology/Occupational Therapy, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Lena Mårtensson, Göteborg University, Sahlgrenska Academy, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Occupational Therapy, Post Box 455, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

Adolescence is characterized by increasing liberation from parents as the young person evolves into an independent individual. Experiencing the serious illness and death of a parent during this phase implies great stress. Serious illness involves uncertainty, worry, and hope at the same time that it is necessary for everyday life to function. This study sought to describe adolescents' experiences in the serious illness and death of a parent.

Methods:

The study was carried out using a qualitative method. Data were collected in interviews with five adolescents who were 14–17 years of age when one of their parents died.

Results:

The results show that the parent's illness was a strong threat, as the adolescents understood that their own and the family's lives would be greatly changed by the illness/death. The incomprehensibility of the parent's serious illness and death was a threatening condition on its own. The adolescents strived to make the inconceivable more conceivable to understand what was happening. They also described the necessity of finding different ways of relating to and managing the threat, such as restoring order, seeking closeness, adapting, gaining control, avoiding talking about the illness, not accepting and counting the parent out. The adolescents described feelings of being alone and alienated, even though they were close to family and friends and they did not actively seek support. The lives of the adolescents were changed by their experiences, beyond their bereavement over the parent. They felt that they had become more mature than their friends and that there had been a change in their thinking about life, changes in values, and changes in their views of relationships with other people.

Significance of results:

The results of the present study can form a basis for developing a support program whose purpose would be to prevent effects on health.

Keywords

BereavementCopingGriefParent/parental deathSocial support
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 13 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Antonovsky, A. (1987). Unravelling the Mystery of Health: How People Manage Stress and Stay Well. London: Jossey Bass Wiley.Google Scholar
Balk, D. (2000). Adolescents, grief and loss. In Living With Grief. Children, Adolescents and Loss, Doka, K. (Ed.), pp. 35–49. New York: Brunner Mazel Inc.Google Scholar
Balk, D. & Corr, C. (2001). Bereavement during adolescence. In Handbook of Bereavement Research, Stroebe, M.H.R., Stroebe, W., & Schut, H. (Eds.), pp. 199–218. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Bernler, G., Calvert, L., Johnsson, L., et al. (1999). Psykosocialt Arbete—Idéer och Metoder [PsychosociaI Work—Ideas and Methods], Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.Google Scholar
Christ, G., Siegel, K., & Christ, A. (2002). Grief: “It never really hit me … until it actually happened.” JAMA, 288, 1269–1278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, K. (2004). Bereaved parentś experiences of research participation. Social Science & Medicine, 58, 391–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folkman, S. (2001). Revisted coping theory and the process of bereavement. In Handbook of Bereavement Research, Stroebe, M.H.R., Stroebe, W., & Schut, H. (Eds.), pp. 563–584. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Fridlund, B. & Hilding, C. (2000). Health and qualitative analysis methods. In Qualitative Research Methods in the Service of Health, Fridlund, B. & Hildingh, C. (Eds.), pp. 13–25. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E. (1997). Adolescent Coping. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gutierrez, P. (1999). Suicidality in parentally bereaved adolescents. Death Studies, 23, 359–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gyllenswärd, G. (1997). Stöd För Barn i Sorg [Support to Children in Grief]. Stockholm: Rädda Barnen.Google Scholar
Harris, E. (1991). Adolescent bereavement following the death of a parent: An exploratory study. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 21, 267–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, L. & Harrington, R. (2001). Adolescentś bereavement experiences. Prevalence, association with depressive symptoms, and use of services. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 159–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heyerdahl, S. (1999). Hopp och bemästrande när barn får cancer. [Hope and mastery when children get cancer]. In Att Bemästra [To Master], Gjaerum, B.G.B. & Sommerschild, H. (Eds.), pp. 285–308. Stockholm: Svenska Föreningen för Psykisk Hälsa.Google Scholar
Hindmarch, C. (1995). Secondary losses for siblings. Child: Care, Health and Development, 21, 425–431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jewett Jarratt, C. (1994). Helping Children Cope with Separation and Loss, Boston: Harvard Common Press.Google Scholar
Kvale, S. (1997). Den Kvalitativa Forskningsintervjun. [The Qualitative Research Interview]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Larsson, S. (1993). On quality of qualitative studies. Nordisk Pedagogik, 13, 194–211.Google Scholar
Malterud, K. (2001). The art and science of clinical knowledge: Evidence beyond measures and numbers. Lancet, 358, 397–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mårtensson, L. & Dahlin-Ivanoff, S. (2006). Experiences of a primary health care rehabilitation programme. A focus group study of persons with chronic pain. Disability and Rehabilitation, 28, 985–995.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mårtensson, L., Petersson, L., & Fridlund, B. (1995). Patients with fibromyalgia and their conception of health after an intervention programme. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2, 113–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Board of Health and Welfare. (1998). Hälso- och Sjukvårdsstatistisk Årsbok 1998 [Health Statistics 1998]. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.Google Scholar
Patel, R. & Tebelius, U. (1987). Grundbok i Forskningsmetodik. [Basic Book in Research Methodology]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Rask, K., Kaunonen, M., & Paunonen-Ilmonen, M. (2002). Adolescent coping with grief after the death of a loved one. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 8, 137–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saldinger, A., Cain, A., & Porterfield, K. (2003). Managing traumatic stress in children anticipating parental death. Psychiatry, 66, 168–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaefer, J. & Moos, R. (2001). Bereavement experiences and personal growth. In Handbook of Bereavement Research, Stroebe, M.H.R., Stroebe, W., & Schut, H. (Eds.), pp. 145–167. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Semmens, J. & Peric, J. (1995). Childreńs experience of a parent's chronic illness and death. The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 13(2), 30–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Simon, B. (2003). Identity in Modern Society. A Social Psychological Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Skinner Cook, A. (2001). The dynamics of ethical decision making in bereavement research. In Handbook of Bereavement Research, Stroebe, M.H.R., Stroebe, W., & Schut, H. (Eds.), pp. 119–142. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Starrin, B. & Svensson, P.-G. (1994). Kvalitativ Metod och Vetenskapsteori [Qualitative Method and Theory of Science]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Stoppelbein, L. & Greening, L. (2000). Posttraumatic stress symptoms in parentally bereaved children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 1112–1119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stroebe, M. & Schut, H. (2001). Models of coping with bereavement: A review. In Handbook of Bereavement Research, Stroebe, M.H.R., Stroebe, W., & Schut, H. (Eds.), pp. 375–402. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Worden, W. (1996). Children and Grief. When a Parent Dies. New York: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, S. (2001). Grief and bereavement. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, 28, 415–425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed