何以走出哀伤:双程模型视角下失独者的哀伤历程与生活重建

Shiduers’Grief Experience from the Dual Process Model of Bereavement

经典的丧亲理论和研究,对丧亲者在微观层面的个体经验有着系统的论述。然而,失独者作为丧亲者中最为弱势的群体之一,他们的哀伤经验却与既有的实证研究成果和理论模型有所出入。作者采用参与式观察方法,并对20位失独者和5位专业人士进行深度访谈,在哀伤双程概念的基础上,通过引入结构视角,试图分析失独者哀伤经验的特殊性和重建生活的可能性,以及尝试建构起理解该群体哀伤历程的理论框架。研究发现,失独者在失去面向与恢复面向上的哀伤经验不仅表现在心理与生理维度,还延伸到行为与社会交往方面。这些在不同面向与维度上的哀伤经验原本应该动态发展且向前推进,却因承受着来自传统文化与社会规范的重压,以及面对社会变迁与个人生命转型中的多重风险事件而难以启动,使得失独者经历着更为持久且沉重的哀伤期。在研究发现的基础上,本文提出了“结构化视角下的哀伤双程模型”,为更加系统地理解失独者乃至高龄丧亲者的哀伤经验提供新的视角,进一步探索了理论模型在本土的适用性。

As an objective event,the death of an only child is not a phenomenon unique to China.However,parents who have experienced the death of their only child against the background of China’s one-child policy,namely Shiduers,their grief experience presents a heavier and more complicated situation.The Shiduers’grief was mainly manifested as follows.First,compared with other bereaved parents who experienced the death of their children,Shiduers were faced with multidimensional disorders at different levels that affected their individual,family,and social life.Third,Shiduers’grief experience was often intertwined with life issues and difficulties,such as poverty,old-age care,and long-term care,and the influences of these life difficulties existed for a long time.The previous research suggested that Shiduers—probably the most vulnerable group among this population—had a grief experience different from the current empirical research findings and theoretical resources.This study adopted the dual process of bereavement and a structural perspective to analyze the particularity of Shiduer’s grief work and attempt to theorize a conceptual framework to understand their life experience.The research data comes from observation notes obtained by the researcher’s participant observation and in-depth interviews with 20 Shiduers and 5 professionals in Wuhan,China.The findings demonstrated that Shiduers’grief experience,which was both loss-oriented and restoration-oriented,was not only limited to the psychological and physical dimensions but also extended to their behaviour and social interaction.Moreover,for Shiduers,whereas the physical dimensions of trauma will undergo a new transformation or even expansion due to the change in stressful life stages(such as aging)and the sudden occurrence of risk events.At the same time,the findings also showed that,contrary to the classical idea of the dual-process model of bereavement,for most Shiduers,their dynamic oscillation process between the loss-oriented and restoration-oriented was often blocked,which made Shiduers always immersed in one aspect from which they were unable to escape.These grief experiences,which under normal circumstances should have developed dynamically,are difficult to ac out because of the pressure from the cultural context and institutional factors,which makes the Shiduers experience a more lasting and heavy grief period.First,based on the research findings,we constructed a dual-process model from a structural perspective to systematically understand Shiduers’grief and explore the applicability of the theoretical model in China.Second,it was necessary to establish a set of integrated grief-counselling work.Professionals such as social workers and psychological counsellors need to have a detailed understanding of different aspects and stages of grief.For different expressions of grief,the from-line practitioners should provide professional services for Shiduers and even the other bereaved populations.Third,in the policy design at the institutional level,it was necessary to actively respond to the most urgent appeals of Shiduers,and most of these appeals were related to their restoration-oriented grief experience.Especially with the rapid development of aging,research predicts that with the increase in life expectancy,more than 10%of the elderly over 60 may face the death of their children in the future.A large number of one-child families makes it urgent and necessary to respond to the life difficulties of those who have lost their only child,including the more extensive elderly who have lost children,the elderly without children,and empty-nest families.