Browsing by Subject "Grief in adolescence"

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    Adolescent coping strategies after a suicide or other loss by death: a retrospective study
    (Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Ephraim, Todd Andrew
    Adolescent suicide in this country increased 300% over the past three decades. How well adolescents cope with a suicide can be a life-or-death matter. This retrospective study with college students examines their reports of coping strategies (Coping Responses Inventory [CRI], Ebata & Moos, 1989), social support (Social Support Functions Inventory [SSFI], Munsch & Blythe, 1993) and family functioning (General Family Functioning Scale [GFFS] of the Family Assessment Device [FAD], Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983) following the suicide or death by other means of a friend or family member. Present identity style was assessed (Identity Style Inventory-Revised [ISI-R], White, Wampler, & Winn, in press). In addition, demographic information and information on experience with a suicide or death in adolescence was obtained. There were 198 male and 743 female participants, students in a large Southwestern University. Of this sample, 132 had experienced a suicide in adolescence, and 341 had experienced another type of death. An additional 447 participants, who had not experienced any deaths in adolescence, answered the instruments as if they had experienced the death of a friend by suicide at age 16. Experiencing the suicide of a friend or a family member was more likely to result in suicide risk than experiencing a death by other causes; however, level of closeness to the deceased had no effect on suicide risk. Adolescents at-risk of committing suicide reported using more negative coping strategies than those not at-risk; however, at-risk adolescents report as much social support as those not at-risk. Family functioning was significantly worse only for those at-risk adolescents who had experienced an ^""other death." At-risk participants were more likely to have a diffuse/avoidant identity style if they had experienced a suicide (other groups did not differ). Adolescents with a diffuse/avoidant style were more likely to be in isolated or parent-dominated networks. Participants who had actually experienced a suicide reported less use of coping strategies and less social support than participants who were imagining how they would have dealt with a suicide. Results of this study point out the similarities and differences between adolescents dealing with a suicide and those dealing with other types of death.