ABSTRACT
Root & Exline (2014) urge researchers to include the following concerns in their future studies on continuing bonds with the deceased: providing a more specific definition for what counts as a continuing bond; the bereaved’s perception of the bond as positive or negative; the quality of the pre-death relationship; and the bereaved’s beliefs about the afterlife. More specifically, they argue, “An important next step in continuing bonds research is to assess the bereaved individual’s subjective experience associated with the continued bond expression, as well as the bereaved’s interpretation of the meaning of the expression—in particular what the expression signifies about the bereaved, about the deceased, and about their relationship” (p. 5). Thus far, I have attempted to show this through my autoethnographic work.
