FACILITATING ATTACHMENT BETWEEN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND A DYING PARENT

Abstract

A qualitative, community study of 58 parentally bereaved children and their 35 surviving parents illustrates how families take advantage of forewarning of death to foster connections between children and dying parents and prepare for youngsters' continued attachment to dying parents after the death. Children and parents displayed strong yearnings to remain connected during terminal illness, but fostering connections for attachment after the death was less intuitive and more emotionally fraught as it undermined coping strategies based on denial of impending death. Thus, although some may benefit from interventions aimed at anticipatory relationship facilitation, clinicians should respect limitations on what family members are psychologically able to bear.