5th Global Conference
Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Session 4: Bereavement
Chair: Caroline Edwards
Handling School Children and Adolescents' Grieving Heart: The Role of
Grief Counselling and Emotional Intelligence
Abayomi
Akindele-Oscar
Faculty of Education, Labisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye,Ogun
State, Nigeria
Despite the fact that grief is a universal, natural and normal response to significant loss, grieving for children and adolescents in school following the death of a parent, family member, or friend can be challenging:physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritaully and academically. Some of these are: Somaticization; roller coaster of shifting emotions; disinterest to resume normal daily activities; incessant outburst of anger and acting out behaviour; difficulty in adjusting to the environment in which the deceased is missing; feeling distracted, forgetful, irritable or confused; loss of motivation and concentration in school activities; and poor academic achievement amongst others. Unfortunately in Nigeria and perhaps in most developing countries, assistance to these grieving hearts have been left for teachers, parents, churches/mosques and non-professionals. There is no deiberate government policy or assistance to help these vulnerable future leaders of tomorrow. This has reinforces individual maladjustment and poor scholarstic achievement in schools. Hence, this paper is advocating for the inclusion of Grief Counselling and Emotional Intelligence Training in Elementary and Secondary Schools as a better alternative to help heal school children and adolescents' grieving heart. While Grief Counsellors will assist and support those who grief through their grief process, emotional intelligence training will enable these grieving students to perceive their emotions, to understand emotions and emotion knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.
The Use of Physical Objects in Mourning by Midlife
Daughters
Laura
Lewis
King’s University College, London, Ontario, Canada
This qualitative study, using a phenomenological approach explored the use of physical objects (possessions) in mourning by midlife women after their mother’s expected deaths. This facilitated the acquisition of a deeper understanding and a greater knowledge of the daughter’s intentions and their lived experience. The study questions were: 1) How do midlife daughters understand the meaning of physical objects in their mourning process? 2) What relational significance becomes imbued in physical objects? Twelve midlife women participated in in-depth interview which were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. In the analysis, particular attention was directed toward understanding object descriptions and meanings. The analysis revealed four themes which overwhelmingly defined relational dimensions that were connected with mourning and physical object use. These dimensions of maternal relationship included: a) an everyday connection; b) special relatedness; c) mother and mother/daughter personality characteristics; d) generational significance. The use of objects in mourning were identified as creative and dynamic ways to sustain oneself in the face of loss and revealed important dimensions of the maternal relationship as is was experienced, and as it moved toward an internalized experience.
‘Coffin nails and column inches’: An Overview of the
News-worthiness of Death in British and Irish Journalism Since the
Turn of the Twentieth Century
Mark
Wehrly
National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
In the late nineteenth
century, newspaper readers in Victorian Britain witnessed a revolutionary
change in reporting that came to be known as a shift from the ‘old’ to
the ‘new journalism’.
Pioneered by W.T. Stead and T.P. O’Connor, among others, newspapers
that were imbued with the ‘new journalism’ appealed to a
more common, base appetite for sensational news, created by a new mass
readership that grew in tandem with rising literacy levels and cheaper
newspapers.
Among the most significant events in the early proliferation
of ‘new
journalism’ were the Whitechapel Murders, which led to the creation
of the mythic ‘Jack the Ripper’. O’Connor and his Star newspaper
thrived during the affair, with shocking and graphic descriptions of
each of the killings keeping his ever-expanding readership hanging on
every word. It can be argued, indeed, that journalism and death have
had a close relationship ever since, with O’Connor’s coverage
becoming in many ways the template for a modern crime-reporter’s
methodology for covering murders. Today, Ireland’s most noted crime
reporter, Paul Williams of the Sunday World, employs a similar
approach to that of O’Connor to relate the details of the country’s
sordid underworld.
However, the position of death within the hierarchy
of newsworthy events in the British and Irish media is a much more complicated
matter, one worthy of further study. The news-worthiness of a death,
it is argued, is dependent on a number of factors, such as cultural proximity,
surprise and widespread impact. Consequently, some deaths become more
important than others. This paper will examine a number of British and
Irish newspapers from the late nineteenth century to the present with
these factors in mind. It will evaluate the allure of sensationalism
in the coverage of murder and other traumatic and violent forms of death,
before looking at how geographical, political and emotional proximity
to the readership has affected such coverage over time.
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