Shared or discordant grief in couples 2-6 years after the death of their premature baby: effects on suffering and posttraumatic growth.
BACKGROUND
The loss of a baby causes severe short- and long-term distress to parents and their marital relationship, but little is known about how this distress is shared between spouses. The authors hypothesized that the grief-related concordance within a couple 2 to 6 years after the loss of a premature baby could be an indicator of shared emotional distress within a couple.


OBJECTIVE
The authors investigated the long-term grief experience among couples.


METHODS
A group of 44 parents (22 couples) were assessed by questionnaire regarding grief, suffering, posttraumatic growth, and affective symptoms, and semistructured interviews with 6 couples added qualitative information about processes within couples.


RESULTS
The extent of grief concordance was found to be related to different patterns of suffering and posttraumatic growth within couples.


CONCLUSIONS
The emotional exchange between partners after the loss of the child appears to be crucial for a process of concordant grief, which in turn is associated with a more synchronous process of individual posttraumatic growth.
Dept. of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. Stefan.Buechi@hohenegg.ch
Stefan
S
Büchi
Hanspeter
H
Mörgeli
Ulrich
U
Schnyder
Josef
J
Jenewein
Annette
A
Glaser
Jean-Claude
JC
Fauchère
Hans
H
Ulrich Bucher
Tom
T
Sensky
D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors