Bereavement Following Suicide and Other Deaths: why Support Attempts Fail

This article, completed as part of a Doctoral Dissertation of Thompson, presents a study of 112 undergraduate students to assess perceptions of bereaved individuals & of potential comforters. Bereaved students reported experiencing more unhelpfulness & blame. Across 5 causes of death, suicide involved most variability in social support, accidents most blame, & homicide most loss. Nonbereaved comforters may hypothetically be able to provide helpful support, but in reality be unable to do so.