Silenced Voices: Hearing the Stories of Parents Bereaved Through the Suicide Death of a Young Adult Child

This qualitative study explored parents’ experiences following the suicide of their young adult child. 22 Australian parents participated. One narrative theme drawn from the interviews was the way in which suicide bereaved parents felt unable to talk about their child’s life & death, their experience of suicide, & their resultant bereavement. Parents reported being silenced by others & silencing themselves in relation to talking about their bereavement. Parents’ private stories are used to explain the difficulties they faced given the contemporary social & cultural context of grief & suicide. An examination of the impact these difficulties had on their ongoing grief narrative & availability of social support follows. (40 refs.) JA