Exploring the Process of Meaning-making after Partner Suicide

摘要

Meaning-making is increasingly recognized as a fundamental aspect of the griefudexperience. This study investigated the process of meaning-making in the narratives ofudindividuals whose partners died by suicide, exploring their meaning reconstruction inudresponse to this form of loss. The narratives of users of a public online grief supportudforum (n = 50) were analyzed using the Meaning of Loss Codebook (Gillies, Neimeyer,ud& Milman, 2014), which consists of core categories of meaning of loss in response to theuddeath of a loved one. The results indicated that these individuals predominantlyudexperienced negative affect, a lack of understanding associated with the loss, and audlonging for their partners. The grief experience of participants in this study was markedudby substantial psychological distress and an ongoing struggle to make sense of and findudmeaning in this type of loss. It is clear that grieving the loss of a partner as a result ofudsuicide presents unique challenges to meaning-making in comparison to other types ofudloss. Given the importance of this aspect of adjustment to loss, these findings deepen theudunderstanding of this component of grief and inform the provision of support for thoseudgrieving a loved one who died by suicide.