Ears to Listen, Hearts to Understand: Bereavement Adaptation and Its Relationship to Kinship and Gender

Abstract

The majority of individuals utilize informal support exclusively in bereavement. This qualitative study, conducted at a private, nonprofit metropolitan area hospice from 2011 to 2016, sought to understand what informal types of support the bereaved consider helpful in adapting to loss, and the impact of kinship and gender on this process. The results confirm and challenge existing anecdotal and research knowledge on kinship and grief. Overall, the significance of the data on gender and grief may reside in its statistical insignificance, inferring a greater degree of parallelism in adapting to loss across gender than previously understood.

Keywords:

• Bereavement
• death
• kinship
• gender
• grief
• loss

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William W. Palmer

William Palmer, MSW, LCSW, is an adjunct professor in the Division of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento, and bereavement coordinator at Mercy Hospice. His research interests include bereavement adaptation and bereavement risk assessment. Mr. Palmer also provides field instruction for graduate students from various universities, and was previously honored to receive the National Heart of Social Work award for lifetime achievement in field instruction from the North American Network of Field Educators and Directors.

Francis K. Yuen

Francis Yuen, DSW, ACSW is a Professor of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento. His research and program evaluation interests are in health, mental health, and family issues with diverse populations. He has been an active researcher and program evaluator for many government and nonprofit organizations. Francis Yuen has published widely with many journal articles, book chapters, and books. He was also the chief editor for the Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation for 14 years.