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Department of Psychology

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/100503
These digital collections include theses, dissertations, faculty publications, and datasets from the Department of Psychology.

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Browsing Department of Psychology by Author "Adams, John, author"

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    College students coping with loss
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Adams, John, author; Rosén, Lee A., advisor; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Henry, Kimberly L., committee member; Biringen, Zeynep, committee member
    Approximately 22 to 30 percent of all college students have experienced the death of a friend or family member in the last 12 months (Balk 2008, 2010; Hardison, Neimeyer & Lichstein, 2005). Grief caused by a death loss significantly impairs the academic performance, social functioning, and emotional health of college students (Balk & Vesta, 1998; Balk, 2008; Servaty-Seib & Hamilton, 2006). There are many ways to cope with and process grief. Posttraumatic growth can result in feeling a greater appreciation for life, feeling closer to loved ones and overall more self-confident (Davis, 2008). However, research has yielded mixed results regarding the impact of posttraumatic growth on grief symptoms, with some studies finding that posttraumatic growth decreases grief symptoms and others finding that it has no impact on grief symptoms or increases symptoms (Davis, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Larson (1998); Linley, Joseph, & Goodfellow (2008); Calhoun & Tedeschi (2006)). Continuing bonds is an approach to grieving that aims to redefine the relationship with the deceased, maintaining it symbolically, spiritually, and/or in memory (Attig, 1996; Hedtke & Winslade, 2003). Previous studies exploring the impact of continuing bonds on grief symptoms have also had mixed results (Neimeyer, Baldwin & Gillies (2006); Rando (1993)). This study sought to explore how both approaches to grief impact grief symptoms in a college aged population that has experienced a death loss in the past year. Additionally, this study also considered another outcome variable uniquely relevant to college students: college adjustment. This study examined how both of these approaches to grieving impacting college students' social, academic, and emotional adjustment to the college environment. When the control variables age, gender, and type of loss were considered, the contributions of the linear regression model to adjustment variance was nonsignificant. Posttraumatic growth had a nonsignificant effect on grief symptoms. Continuing bonds scores were found to have a significant positive relationship with grief symptoms. These findings suggest that continuing bonds contributes to increased grief symptoms for college students, discouraging the use of continuing bonds based interventions for bereaved students in college counseling centers. Future research could examine why continuing bonds has this impact on college students and what approaches to processing grief could help reduce grief symptoms in college students.
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    Pet death as disenfranchised loss: examining posttraumatic growth and attachment in college students
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Adams, John, author; Rickard, Kathryn, advisor; Prince, Mark, committee member; Davalos, Deana, committee member; Biringen, Zeynep, committee member
    People in Western societies who have experienced the death of close loved ones can feel as though the impact of their grief is ignored and sometimes not taken seriously. Individuals who have experienced losses even less recognized than human death, such as pet death, can feel completely invalidated and unsupported in their loss. This phenomenon is referred to as disenfranchised grief. Within a pet bereaved sample, this study sought to examine the impacts of social support, severity of grief, and strength of attachment on posttraumatic growth. The study attempted to replicate findings from Spain, O'Dwyer, and Moston (2019) that found that grief symptom severity moderated a negative relationship between loss of social support and posttraumatic growth. This study also explored the impact of insecure attachment on social support and grief severity within a pet bereaved sample. Finally, this study observed possible influences of differences within pet bereaved individuals related to type of pet and whether the pet was euthanized. College students in introductory psychology courses at a large western United States university completed a survey that assessed extent of social support, grief symptom severity, strength of attachment to pet, insecure attachment, and posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that while grief symptoms and strength of attachment to pet were not moderators for social support and posttraumatic, social support and grief symptoms contributed to increases in posttraumatic growth. Insecure attachment was also found to detract from social support. The findings of this study can inform the clinical treatment of pet bereaved persons and inform future research of pet bereavement as well as disenfranchised loss overall.