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Parents’ adjustment to late abortion, stillbirth or infant death: The role of causal attributions
Author(s) -
Jind Lise
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00358
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , meaning (existential) , abortion , developmental psychology , longitudinal study , causality (physics) , psychiatry , clinical psychology , pregnancy , social psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , biology , genetics
The aim of the present study was to explore the attributional processes and the effect of various causal attributions on post‐traumatic symptomatology among 110 parents who had lost an infant. The attributional processes were examined with longitudinal data collected over 12 months. One to four weeks post‐loss, approximately half of the parents reported that they were never or rarely concerned with attributing responsibility for their baby's death. The importance of attributing responsibility was associated with several post‐traumatic symptoms, as was searching for meaning in the death. Attributions to oneself, others, or God were positively and significantly associated with numerous post‐traumatic symptoms. The results are discussed with reference to other studies dealing with the effect of attributions on subsequent adjustment among victims of trauma.