Vanhempien selviytymistä estävät tekijät lapsen kuoleman jälkeen

Abstract

The death of a child is a difficult experience for parents and the process of coping with it may take a lifetime. The purpose of this study is to describe the factors that prevent parents’ coping after the death of a child. The aim of the study is to use the information to understand the factors that hinder coping in order to be able to prevent them.The target group of the study was parents who have experienced the death of their child. The participation was not limited based on the child's mode of death, thechild's age of death, or the time elapsed since the child's death. The data were collected with an electronic e-questionnaire from the Facebook page of the peer association Käpy-Lapsikuolemaperheet ry. The questionnaire included background variables and an open-ended question related to factors hindering parental coping. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis.Parental copingwas hampered by the recovery from death grief, child abandonment, other people’s negative behavior, lack of family support, challenging care situations, and challenges to moving forward in life.Factors that hindered parental coping after the death of a child were diverse and individual. The factors hindering the coping were related to the difficulty of the grief after the child’s death, social situations, and future reconstruction.Delay of grieving and not grieving during the hospitalisation hindered parents’ coping from the death of a child. Thus the role of health care professionals to listen and support parentis isimportant. Parents, whose child has died, experience the existence of educated professionals as important. Keywords: child’s death, parents, coping, hindering factors, qualitative research.