• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to empirically verify the effects of spousal bereavement and complicated grief level on death anxiety of the elderly. The sample consisted of 1,998 adults who were aged 65 or older. Dependent variable was measured with the Death Anxiety Scale-Korean version (DAS-K). Independent variable was measured with both spousal bereavement and the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Korean version (ICG-K). Multiple regression analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0, adjusting for demographics, psycho-social and health variables. The results indicated that death anxiety level was lower among the bereaved with normal grief (p<.01) than non-bereaved. In contrast, death anxiety level was higher among the bereaved with complicated grief than non-bereaved (p<.01). The study result suggests that the most risky factor for death anxiety is complicated grief rather than the bereavement. Although the bereavement can be a universal experience, the severity and duration of symptoms after the bereavement may not be general. The unhealed emotional and physical pain after the bereavement stimulates death anxiety, and senior citizens who suffer from complicated grief often fail to integrate the bereavement and loss into reality, therefore, may not accept the death phenomenon itself. Anxiety and fear of death can emerge when they cannot acknowledge the bereavement. To manage complex sorrows and mitigate death anxiety, intervention programs should be provided to increase adaptability to the bereavement.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.103-123
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• 2018

The purpose of this research is to study how an elderly male lives after the experience of bereavement, and to understand the experience's essence. The researcher picked 3 elderly men living alone after separation by death as test subjects and gathered information through in-depth interviews. The analysis of the information was done based on the three-dimensional space of narrative presented by Clandinin and Connely(2000), and it restructures the common experience under five meanings. The mutual themes of 'It's the life of a sinner, but not wanting to be seen as a widower to others', 'The fear for death, and the preparation for after death', 'Trying to stay alive for the children', 'Entering the world to find meaning in a gloomy life', and 'A lone goose lost in search of social warmth' came from the research results. The essence of the experience studied with the mutual themes as basis came out to be 'A struggle to take flight again after one broken wing'. This research has a major significance in that elderly males' experience of bereavement was studied in the dimension of time continuity, and that individual social interactions that are made by elderly males to continue their lives after the experience of bereavement were studied.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.379-391
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of married immigrant women who lost their spouse, and it is meaningful in that it examined the empirical perception on the recently newly-focused issue, bereavement of marriage immigrant women, from their perspective for the first time. For this, in-depth interviews were conducted on seven immigrant women who have experienced the death of their spouse and analyzed in Colaizzi's phenomenological method. The results showed that the experience can be classified into 20 topics and 5 categories: 'happy marriage life', 'marriage life they had put up with', 'death of spouse', 'life to be lived alone', and 'bearable life with hope'. The experience of bereavement was found to be a transition from the life in which they depended on their spouse in every aspect to the one where they make efforts to live an independent life adjusting to changes in their life after the loss. Based on this, the study will be a fundamental source of practical measures and social welfare support for them to live a better life in Korean society after their bereavement.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.931-946
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• 2015

Many multiple life insurance products consider benefits that are contingent on the combined survival status of two lives. To value premiums of the insurance products accurately, we need to consider the impact of the survivorship of one life on another. To show a dependence relation between married couple, we calculate correlation coefficients by using married couples data from National Pension Service and the results show some positive dependence between them. Moreover, by analyzing the death after bereavement, we find a evidence that mortality rates increase after the death of a spouse and, in addition, that this phenomenon, the broken-heart syndrome, diminishes over time. The results of this study can support the method to calculate the premium of multiple life insurance reflecting more realistic joint mortality rates.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.120-127
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• 2007

Bereavement is the state of loss resulting from death. Grief is the emotional response associated with loss, intense and acute sorrow resulting from loss. Complicated grief represent a pathological outcome involving social, physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual morbidity. The common psychiatric disorders associated complicated grief or abnormal grief responses include clinical depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse or other substance abuse, and dependence, psychotic disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Grief tasks involve a series of stage or phases following an important loss that gradually permit adjustment and recovery. Three phases of grief involve phase 1 (walking the edges), phase 2 (entering the depths), and phase 3 (reconnecting the world). For intervention to be effective they need to be individually tailored to abnormal grief reaction or unresolved grief reaction. Clear understandings of complicated grief, abnormal responses, factors increasing risk after bereavement will often enable us to prevent psychiatric disorders in bereaved patients.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.51-69
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• 1992

Grief that is not acknowledged and worked through may manifest itself in some emotional, mental or physical problem. In recent years much has been learned about coping with grief which the hospice program can utilize to help family members cope with their grief. This study was carried out to determine the helpfulness of the bereavement care of Severance Hospice and to learm more about the grief response of the bereaved. The tools used to collect data were an assessment form used in the bereavement program and the Grief Experience Inventory developed by Sanders and revised and translated 'by the researcher. Data was obtained from bereaved family members(54 for the final grief assessment and 39 for the grief response assessment) receiving bereavement follow-up, from July 1989 to March 1991. Results of the study were as follows: 1. Final Grief Assessment Regarding the resolution of their grief the majority of the bereaved accepted the reality of the death of their family member, while slightly more than three-quarters were able to express their feelings toward their loss. A large majority had returned to activities of daily living well or fairly well and had reinvested their energy in a person other than the deceased. In addition, the physical condition of the majority was good or fairly good. A majority of the bereaved considered the bereavement care to be helpful and almost three-quarters were not considered to be in need of more follow-up. 2. Grief Response Assessment Age was found to have a modoerately positive correlation to appetite disturbance(r=.41, P<.Ol) and loss of vigor(r=.37, P<.Ol) A moderately positive correlation was found between the number of contacts and sleep disturbance(r=2.38, P<.01) Significant differences were found between men and women in regard to guilt(t=2.38, P<.05), social isolation(t=2.44, P<.05) and depersonalization(t=2.07, P<.05) with men having the more intense grief. Significant differences were found in the grief responses of somatization(F=5.82, P<.001), physical symptoms(F=5.87, P<.OOl), appetite disturbance(F=4.40, P<.Ol), despair(3.79, P<,Ol), anger(Fp2.83, P<.05), social isolation(F=3.61, P<.05), guilt(F=3.62, P<.05) and depersonalization (F = 2.58, P <.05). In the first six of these grief responses mothers scored highest, followed by husbands and then wives, In the grief response of guilt, daughters scored highest and on the grief response of depersonalization sons scored highest. Only one grief response, that of sleep disturbance(t= -2.19, P<.05) was found to be statistically significant, with those family members who died at home having the higher scores. Based on the results of this study several suggestions are presented as follows: 1. Since unresolived grief can have a detrimental effect on the bereaved person's mental and phys. ical health it would be good for the nurse, to include questions related to death of family members and the bereaved person's response to the grief, in her nursing assessment. And in the case of unresolved grief the nurse should encourage the person to talk with a trusted friend or counselor and express their fellings of grief. 2. A study to determine the degree of resolution of the grief of those in the bereavement program could be carried out by use of the Grief Experience Inventory early in their bereavement and again 13 months after the death of their family member. 3. A comparison of the grief response of the bereaved in the bereavement program and bereaved not in the program could be carried out using the Grief Experience Inventory. 4. After bereavement programs have been started in other hospice programs it would be good to carry out a joint study of bereavement outcomes of those in the bereavement programs.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.255-272
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• 1997

In the point of view, this study aims to examine the life of remarriaged old people after divorce and bereavement. therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of married couple's relationship and remarriage in old age and help old people who want to be abused about their remarriage as a coping response of lire for widowhood in old aged. the subject were 14 old people who married over 53 years old bereavement and divorce residing in Chonju, Chonbuk and they had indepth interviews. 1. Most of subject would married with help of matchmaker under the consent a children and relative 2. The main motivation of remarriage was lone lies, however, for men being taken care and for women economic security were also important. 3. Premarriage experience seemed to help spouse adjustment between couples. 4. They matintained close relationship with there biological children. 5. There show a tendency to the bereavement woman remarriage life was happier than divorce woman. 6. When one of the couple had regular income, little economic conflict was there. In most case, wifes were younger than husband and economic stability after husband's death was their main concern and when the husband didn't show definite will to inherit asset to his wife, conflict got bigger.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.165-193
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• 2013

This study purposes to explore the growing process through spousal bereavement in later life, and to develop the theory. A qualitative research was conducted, and the participants were 17 seniors. The analysis according to Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory(1998), resulted in 143 concepts, 43 subcategories, and 19 categories. Range analysis according to paradigm showed that the causal conditions were 'marital relationships', 'independent/dependent tendencies', and 'emotional readiness for the death of a spouse', and the phenomena were 'depression', 'hopelessness', 'daily stress', 'psychological intimidation', 'regret', and 'sense of being freed'. The contextual conditions that affect these phenomena were 'desire for intimate personal relationships' and 'desire to maintain independence'; the action/interaction strategies to manage the phenomena were 'facing reality' and 'efforts for construction of the new life'; and the mediating conditions that promote or suppress these action/interaction strategies were 'social support' and 'spirituality'. The results were 'reconstruction of the meaning in life', 'increase in self-esteem', 'reinforcement of social network' and 'embrace and acceptance'. Furthermore, when personal growth after bereavement of a spouse was analyzed focusing on changes over time, the growth process consisted of three steps: 'sadness and despair', 'embracing and moving forward', and 'personal growth'. The pattern analyses were performed to typify recurring relations by category, and 5 types were derived. The results of our study show that personal growth after spousal loss is an integrative process in life after crisis, and can be conceptualized as the process of overcoming the despair that immediately follows the death of a spouse, seeking a new life by actively taking control, and discovering a strengthened self.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2004

Death of spouse is the most heartbreaking stressful and inevitable tragic life event. In middle aged men who belong to the social middle class and accomplished their occupational success, experiences of spousal bereavement are great shock. The aim of this study was to find out how they overcome their mental and physical pain and to obtain the basic materials to develop suitable nursing care programs for them. The methodological approach of this study is Giorgi's phenomenological analysis meaning unit. This method also makes theme focal meaning, situated structural description and create general structural description grasped by participator's experience through situated structure description. This study performed from November 2002 to May 2004, and participators were four men. Data collected through in-depth personal interviews. which had been tapped and analysed the Giorgi's method. Finally, the five focal meaning below have been abstracted. Theme 1. Physical symptom loss of appetite, fatigue, insomnia. outbreak of illness, weight loss. Theme 2. life of spiritless lack of desire, sense of emptiness, unstableness, prosaic life. wandering. indifference of appearances, avoidance of meeting people. Theme 3. life of retrospction reflection for his wife, yearning, grief, muttering to himself, never-to-be forgotten wife, leading a lonely life. Theme 4. negative emotion reproaching, feeling hurt, marriage of daughter, feeling heavy, getting angry, sexual desire, awareness of his sinfulness. loneliness Theme 5. social support and adjustment getting his wife off his mind, curring favor with children, support and consolation by his daughter-in-law, appreciation for hospice nurse, considering remarriage, taking care of himself, good relation with his children. The result of this study showed that middle aged men bereaved of their wife by cancer need other's concern. And we have to study further to understand their experience. Until now hospice nursing is concentrated on cancer patients But from now we have to provide their families suitable nursing care programs to adjust themselves to social life before and after death of patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.130-134
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• 2021

In the era of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), social distancing and strict visitation policies at hospitals have made it difficult for medical staff to provide high-quality end-of-life (EOL) care to dying patients and their families. There are various issues related to EOL care, including psychological problems of patients and their families, difficulties in EOL decision-making, the complicated grief of the bereaved family, moral distress, and exhaustion of medical staff. In relation to these issues, we aimed to discuss practical considerations in providing high-quality EOL care in the COVID-19 pandemic. First, medical staff should discuss advance care planning as early as possible and use the parallel planning strategy. Second, medical staff should play a role in facilitating patient-family communication. Third, medical staff should actively and proactively evaluate and alleviate dying patients' symptoms using non-verbal communication. Lastly, medical staff should provide care for family members of the dying patient, who may be particularly vulnerable to post-bereavement problems in the COVID-19 era. Establishing a system of screening high-risk individuals for complicated grief and connecting them to bereavement support services might be considered. Despite the challenging and limited environment, providing EOL care is essential for patients to die with dignity in peace and for the remaining family to return to life after the loved one's death. Efforts considering the practical issues faced by all medical staff and healthcare institutions caring for dying patients should be made.