title: Psychological Flexibility and Resilience in Parentally Bereaved College Students.
abstract: Losing a parent prior to age 18 years can have life-long implications. The challenges of emerging adulthood may be even more difficult for parentally bereaved college students, and studying their coping responses is crucial for designing campus services and therapy interventions. This study examined the relationships between bereavement-related distress, experiential avoidance (EA), values, and resilience. Findings indicated that EA and low importance of values were correlated with bereavement difficulties, with EA accounting for 26% of the variance in the bereavement distress measure. In addition, reports of behaving consistently with values accounted for 20% of the variance in the resiliency measure. Contrary to hypotheses and previous literature, there were no significant relationships between the measures of EA and values. The results, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Amy R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Murrell
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ryeshia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ethan G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Lester
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hulsey
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: bereavement; college students; experiential avoidance; resilience; values