Abstract

Few events impact families as powerfully as the death of a family member. Much of what we know about grief is from an individual perspective. Most studies focus on individuals. This study investigated the phenomenon of family meaning-making. A critical factor in bereavement is how the family construes the death event. ;This qualitative study examined patterns of meaning in bereaved families. The purpose was to describe the nature of meanings and the meaning-making process as it occurs in the family context. Symbolic Interactionism and Family Systems Theory underlie the design of the study. ;Intensive interviews were conducted with 48 family members in 10 non-clinical, multigenerational families. Respondents were interviewed separately and in family groups. Interview data were transcribed verbatim and content analyzed by methods greatly influenced by the methodology of Grounded Theory. ;Findings include a typology of meanings, specific strategies families use to make meaning, and insights into the patterns of family meaning-making. Meanings of the death event ranged from idiosyncratic meanings held by a single family member to general world views and religious beliefs ranged from story telling to "family speak" which is a way families use every day discourse to weave their individual threads of meaning into family constructions. There were systems levels of meaning-making phenomena within families and factors which seemed to inhibit or facilitate family meaning-making. ;The findings have implications for theory, research, and practice. They suggest that any grief theory which does not include family dynamics is likely to be inadequate. Findings support symbolic interactionist theories, and further delineate family processes from a family systems perspective. Findings also suggest specific ways of both assessing and intervening with bereaved individuals and families. ;What was learned about family meaning-making should be helpful, not only in understanding how families make meaning about death, but how they make meaning about other traumas. Such understandings would be helpful to researchers, educators, helping professionals and families