Ramsby Herrera, Maria Eleonora;
(2023)
Exploring parental death in adulthood through life history research: A representation of five women's experience of loss and grieving.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
A considerable body of knowledge exists regarding the role of meaning reconstruction in bereavement. Yet the loss and grieving associated with losing a parent in adulthood, and their related meanings, remains an understudied area. In this context, bereaved adult children remain notably overlooked. This life history research was conducted in London, the United Kingdom. The study set out to explore five women’s experiences of parental death in adulthood, to gain an understanding of their loss and grieving and what it meant to them. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by a life history analysis, which sequenced the research participants’ narratives chronologically and composed a rich life history unique to each person. Through a critical engagement with the meaning reconstruction model originally developed by Neimeyer and colleagues, the discussion identifies four meaning activities within the women’s life histories: (i) sense making, (ii) benefit finding, (iii) identity change, and (iv) assigning importance. Each activity presents a range of constructed meaning outcomes that reflect the women’s bereavement experiences up close. The insights brought forth by these meanings demonstrate that losing a parent in adulthood, even when it has been anticipated and/or made sense of, is a significant life event that can have adverse consequences for the adult child and should therefore not be underestimated. This study supports and expands the scope of postmodern bereavement theories. It further demonstrates the usefulness of life history methodology as a means of exploring loss and grieving, with particular regard to how family history and the parent-child relationship shape these experiences. These findings enrich emerging understandings from the fields of thanatology and psychology, and can be harnessed to inform the general public, researchers, and bereavement professionals about the struggles and needs of the bereaved adult child, as well as how to provide them with compassionate and appropriate support.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Exploring parental death in adulthood through life history research: A representation of five women's experience of loss and grieving |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10164797 |
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