Maternal grief: analysis and therapeutic recommendations.

The following self-analysis contains key experiences of maternal grief over the course of the first 2 years following the death of a child, with specific examples and observations from bereaved mothers shared with the author. The references provide supporting evidence for commonality of the lived experience and observations. Therapeutic responses for clinicians give concrete direction for providing effective comfort.

Caring for the bereaved parent: Guidelines for practice.

Purpose: The purpose of this research review was to create practical guidelines for the primary care practitioner in comforting, counseling, and educating bereaved parents and their significant supporters.

Data Sources: The authors used an extensive review of the literature for original research reports of bereaved parents' self-identified needs for comfort from their friends, family, and healthcare practitioners. Insight gained from the authors' clinical work with bereaved parents added further understanding.

Faith and mental health in an oncology population.

This study compares faith attitudes versus behaviors for their relationship to mental health in current cancer patients and survivors. This cross-sectional survey of ambulatory patients included Hodge's intrinsic religious motivation scale, Benson & Spilka's concept of God scale, frequency of prayer, and the mental health subscale of the MOS SF-36. One hundred and fifty-eighty patients, mostly women with breast cancer, completed questionnaires (92% return).

Terrorism, post-traumatic stress, coping strategies, and spiritual outcomes.

This mail survey measured post-traumatic stress symptoms, spiritual and non-spiritual coping strategies, and positive spiritual outcomes following the tragedies of 9/11/01 in a national, random sample of 1,056 Presbyterians. Respondents reported mild to moderate degrees of re-experiencing and hyper-arousal symptoms of post-traumatic stress, unrelated to location or knowing someone involved. People experiencing high stress used greater frequency and variety of both spiritual and non-spiritual types of coping strategies.

Gender differences in religiosity and functional health in the elderly.

This secondary analysis of a random, community survey of 271 people over 65 years old examined gender differences in religious coping, importance of faith, and frequency of prayer for their relationship on eight categories of functional physical and mental health, as measured by the Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey Short-Form 36. Mental health was the only outcome related to the spiritual indices for both genders but used differently. Frequency of prayer, a behavioral indicator, was positively related to mental health for men.

Altruistic social interest behaviors are associated with better mental health.

Objective: This study investigated whether altruistic social interest behaviors such as engaging in helping others were associated with better physical and mental health in a stratified random sample of 2016 members of the Presbyterian Church throughout the United States.

Methods: Mailed questionnaires evaluated giving and receiving help, prayer activities, positive and negative religious coping, and self-reported physical and mental health.

Results: Multivariate regression analysis revealed no association between giving or receiving help and physical functioning, although the sample was highly skewed toward high physical functioning.

Terrorism, posttraumatic stress, and religious coping.

The events of September 11, 2001 triggered a widespread national response that was two-fold: a posttraumatic stress reaction and an increase in attendance in religious services and practices immediately following the tragic events. The following discussion traces the existing research to distinguish this posttraumatic stress reaction from posttraumatic stress disorder as a recognized psychiatric diagnosis. This disaster reaction is then examined in light of the research on religious coping, delineating both its positive and negative aspects and the respective outcomes.