MEANING MAKING AS A COPING STRATEGY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON HOW BEREAVED CAREGIVERS COPE WITH THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

Abstract

Death is a common and universal human experience. During times of highly stressful life events, meaning may hold a critical role in people’s adaptation to stress. The process of meaning making will influence how one copes with bereavement, making grief a personal and unique experience. This qualitative study aims to provide insights into the meaning making experiences of bereaved caregivers, and examines the relationship between meaning making and coping. This study will examine the experience of grief, and utilize the Continuing Bonds Theory and Lazarus and Folkman’s Stress and Coping Theory. Interviews were conducted with ten bereaved caregivers who faced the death of a loved one. Interpretative phenomenological approach was utilized to analyse participants’ lived experience and how they made sense of their personal experience. Findings from this study highlighted meaning making as a dynamic coping strategy comprising four main processes: making sense of the event, the deceased figure, the bonds and the self. Through interactions between the processes of meaning making, meaning making is a coping strategy itself that can help individuals create meaning and facilitate coping. However, depending on the meanings made, meaning making can impede or facilitate coping, and therefore is a multidimensional process. Challenging the role of Continuing Bonds in coping and meaning making, this study shows that continuing bonds is a process that evolves in its forms, and that internalizing the deceased’s legacy has the capacity to promote coping in the long run. Therefore, although the death of a loved one is permanent, the relationship with the deceased prevails and continues to influence the present and future for the bereaved. It is hoped that findings from this study can raise awareness about the process of grief and help social workers to become a better support and advocate for any individuals who are facing difficulties with their grief.