Year: 2009 Source: Death Studies, v.33, no.7, (August 2009), p.591-608 SIEC No: 20090519

With survey data collected primarily from peer support group participants, the authors compared stigmatization responses of 462 parents losing children to suicide with 54 other traumatic death survivors, & 24 child natural death survivors. Parents who encountered harmful responses & strained relations with family members & non-kin reported heightened grief difficulties. After controlling for time since the death & whether a child’s death was traumatic or not, stigmatization continued to be associated with grief difficulties, depression, & suicidal thinking. Suicide survivors reported little differences in stigmatization from other traumatic death survivors, a result consistent with other recent studies. (22 refs.)