Abstract
Young adults establish networks of friends for companionship, support, assistance, and resource exchange. Friends have been found to play an essential role in promoting young adults’ health and well-being. Yet, relatively little is known about how young adults cope with the death of a close friend. Studies of grief and bereavement in adulthood focus primarily on the death of a family member. In the present qualitative study, we examined the narrative accounts of 20 young adults (ages 21–34) to describe the prevalence and nature of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth experiences in coping with the death of a close friend. Participants completed semi-structured interviews in which they described the circumstances of their friend’s death, the nature of their friendship, whether and how they continued their relationship with their deceased friend, and the impact of their friend’s death in their everyday lives. Overall, young adults articulated ways that they continued their relationship with the deceased friend that included personal communication, personal change, and homage activities. Post-traumatic growth experiences as a result of their friend’s death included behavioral changes and personal changes in outlook. The narratives of all participants reflected their simultaneous experience of continuing relationship ties with the deceased and a sense of personal growth as a result of their friend’s death. We report areas of overlap and distinctions between expressions of continuing bonds and post-traumatic growth in the lived experience of young adults coping with the loss of a friend. Implications of findings for future research are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Gabrielle Merandi, Lindsey Roberts, Tatiana Rodriguez, and Sindhia Swaminathan for their contributions to the development and implementation of the present research. We deeply appreciate all of the women and men who shared their experiences as participants in the study.
Author Contributions
C.H.S.: took primary responsibility for conducting the study and writing the paper; C.E.P.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings, and writing sections of the results; S.M.G.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings, and writing sections of the results; G.M.M.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings, and writing sections of the results; J.H.M.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings; M.W.F.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings; S.C.G.: participated in study design, data collection, collaborated on data analysis and interpretation of findings; E.B.D.: collaborated on supplementary data analysis and interpretation of findings; M.F.B. collaborated on supplementary data analysis.
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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interest.
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. IRB approval for the study was provided by Bowling Green State University.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Stein, C.H., Petrowski, C.E., Gonzales, S.M. et al. A Matter of Life and Death: Understanding Continuing Bonds and Post-traumatic Growth When Young Adults Experience the Loss of a Close Friend. J Child Fam Stud 27, 725–738 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0943-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0943-x