Use of spiritual coping strategies by gender, race/ethnicity, and religion at 1 and 3 months after infant's/child's intensive care unit death.
Dawn M Hawthorne, JoAnne M Youngblut, Dorothy Brooten
PMID 28834324WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers used more religious coping than fathers at 1 month, and more religious and spiritual coping at 3 months.
Black non-Hispanic mothers used more religious coping than White non-Hispanic mothers at 3 months. Ask parents how they are coping before recommending religious practices.
Key findings
01In the 30 mother-father couples, mothers used significantly more religious coping than fathers at 1 month, and significantly more religious and spiritual coping than fathers at 3 months.
02Race/ethnicity differences in religious coping were not significant for mothers at 1 month or fathers at 1 or 3 months, but at 3 months Black non-Hispanic mothers used significantly more religious coping than White non-Hispanic mothers.
03Religious coping differed by religion: Protestant mothers used significantly more religious coping than 'other' and 'no' religion groups, Catholic mothers used significantly more than the 'no' religion group, and fathers with 'no' religion used significantly less religious coping than Protestant and Catholic fathers at 1 month.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 30 mother-father couples were available for paired comparisons, and fathers were 51 of 165 parents, so findings about couples and fathers are limited. The Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale was added after data collection in the main study had started, so this report is a subsample of a larger longitudinal study. All children died in hospital, so findings may not apply to parents whose children died at home or in long-term care facilities. Data were collected only at 1 and 3 months after death, so findings may not apply beyond 3 months. Religious and spiritual coping were measured by parent self-report, not by clinical observation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these differences as proof that religious or spiritual coping reduces grief or works better for any group. The study measured self-reported coping use in parents of children who died in a NICU or PICU, and only followed them for 3 months.