ABSTRACT
Although attempts at understanding bereavement reactions overwhelmingly reflect an individual and intrapersonal perspective, Picking Up the Pieces was also evidenced at the family level as the impact of the child’s death reverberated through each individual member and, ultimately, the family collectively. The family is a unit defined by the presence of each member; the death of a child, therefore, heralds the loss of the family as it was. How a member grapples with the shatter and the aftermath of a child’s death is mirrored by the family’s struggle with this painful reality. A number of factors are influential in determining a family’s response including the extent of emotional sharing and self-disclosure, the cognitive appraisal of the event and the collective struggle with meaning, the extent of family cohesion, the degree of family conflict, and the family’s coping skills (adaptive or maladaptive). The parents in this study discussed changes and acts of regeneration in relationships within the family after the death. These changes occurred in two main areas: the ongoing relationships with surviving members of the family and the continuing or ongoing relationship with the deceased child.
