Childhood experiences and complicated grief: a study of adult children of alcoholics.
For the most part, grief research concentrates on type of loss (e.g., loss of spouse, parent, or child) and/or type of death (e.g., expected or sudden). In contrast, the present paper focuses on a category of persons generally assumed to have had troubled childhoods, adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs). Because of assumed problematic histories, the grief process of ACOAs should be expected to differ from the grief process of non-ACOAs. Using both quantitative and qualitative techniques, 27 ACOAs and 20 non-ACOAs, recruited by newspaper, radio, and word-of-mouth, are compared across characteristics generally associated with ACOAs and/or unresolved grief. Implications for counseling are presented.
Brabant
S
S
University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette 70504.
Martof
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D001293:Attitude to Death; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents; D003376:Counseling; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior