Filially bereaved grandparents
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify and describe individual and familial patterns of adaptation to loss for bereaved parents/grandparents following the death of their adult child. The subject of the research was a theoretical analysis of the work necessary for adaptation to loss for the well being of the bereaved parents/grandparents as identified by Worden's (1991) Four Tasks of Mourning and Walsh and McGoldrick's (1991) two Family Tasks of Mourning. The four grandparent couples who participated in the study maintained close relationships with their bereaved grandchildren. However, while three of the four study couples accomplished their individual and familial tasks of mourning following the death of their adult child with many similarities, the residue from traumatic childhood losses for the fourth couple made their individual and familial adaptations markedly different from the other grandparents in the study.
This paper has been withdrawn.