Social Support for Bereaved People: A Reflection in Chinese Society

Abstract

Losing a loved one through death can be the most stressful life event, yet most people will encounter it during their life time. Even though the majority of this vast group of people will return to normal function without any support, it is common to observe various negative emotions among grieving people; such as despair, anger, bitterness, guilt, and sadness, which are both intense and prolonged. Bereaved people need to deal with the distress of losing their loved ones, as well as with other secondary stressors associated with the death, such as financial difficulty due to the death of the sole bread winner in the family. They thus have to face both psychological and tangible challenges. Logically speaking, social support plays a significant role for the bereaved person in facilitating adjustment to the loss as well as to changes that occur after the death under such stressful circumstances. However, there are controversies over the notion of the positive impact of social support on bereaved persons in existing empirical findings. The most plausible explanation probably concerns the matching of offerings from supporters and the expected needs of the bereaved people. This chapter will introduce the impact of bereavement on the bereaved persons and the possible role of social support in the adjustment process. Based on the Dual Process Model (Stroebe & Schut, 1999), which describes the coping domains and process of grieving persons, we have proposed a parallel model of social support in bereavement. Illustrating the concepts with qualitative and quantitative data in three studies by the authors on Chinese bereaved persons, this chapter attempts to offer a glimpse of the characteristics of social support for bereaved people within the Chinese society as well as the effect of social support among Chinese bereaved people.