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Writing Projects: Lessening Undergraduates' Unique Suicidal Bereavement
Author(s) -
Kovac Stacey H.,
Range Lillian M.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.2000.tb01064.x
Subject(s) - grief , psychology , complicated grief , traumatic grief , suicide prevention , disenfranchised grief , psychotherapist , clinical psychology , psychiatry , poison control , medicine , medical emergency
To assess if writing projects lessen undergraduates' grief following a loved one's suicide, 40 students whose loved one died by suicide in the past 2 years wrote on four occasions over 2 weeks about profound topics (e.g., events and emotions surrounding the death) or trivial topics (e.g., description of the previous meal). All participants completed pre‐ and posttest measures of grief and self‐reported health visits, and 75% completed the same measures at 6‐week mailed follow‐up. As expected, individuals in the profound condition reported less grief associated with suicide at follow‐up than those in the trivial condition. However, the trivial and profound groups were not significantly different in general grief or health visits. Writing about grief associated with the suicide of a loved one appeared to reduce suicidal grief associated with this event. However, this benefit did not extend to general grief or physical health.