PERSONAL WORLD EXPANSION: EXPERIENCES OF SURVIVORS OF MURDER VICTIMS (GRIEF, DEATH, BEREAVEMENT, HOMICIDE).
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study was designed to explore concurrently the life experiences of adult significant other survivors of murder victims during the first four months following the murder, and the factors related to the mode of death that impact on these experiences. There is evidence in the literature that among other factors, the violence involved in death by murder and the subsequent involvement with the criminal justice system may impact significantly on the grief experiences of these survivors. However, only minimal empirical data are available to support these reports.

Fourteen subjects who had experienced the murder of a significant other each participated in a series of monthly in-depth interviews, beginning during the first 10 weeks after the murder. A total of forty interviews were completed. Eight of the subjects also completed a grief inventory following their first and last interviews. The data from the interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach in which substantive and theoretical categories were developed. The data from the grief inventory were analyzed using descriptive and nonparametric statistics, and were examined for convergence with the interview data.

A conceptual framework that had as its core variable the personal world expansion of survivors of murder victims evolved from the data. Analysis indicated that during the first months following the murder of a significant other, survivors experience acute grief that is severely disrupted by frequent and repeated interactions with multiple new elements in their physical, cognitive, and emotional personal worlds. In most instances it appeared that grief work was inhibited as the subjects focused their attention and expended their energy on coping with their expanded personal worlds, rather than on adapting to their personal losses.

This study has implications for nurses and other mental health care professionals, as well as for members of the criminal justice system, in terms of understanding the experiences of survivors of murder victims in order to begin to meet their specific needs. Studies that would concurrently explore survivors' experiences over at least two years following the murder are recommended.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: B, page: 0131.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1985.

School code: 0806.