Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Advisor
Anne Rambo
Abstract
Every 40 seconds, a person dies by suicide worldwide (United Nations Report, 2020). Suicide is now the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. There is an urgent need for the field of family therapy and other helping fields to better understand the lived experiences of families and individuals impacted by suicide loss. This study employed an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) by examining the lived experiences of fathers bereaved by suicide loss. Although a small body of research exists regarding the bereavement experience of parents who have lost a child by suicide, within the literature, there appears to be a gender gap in the research on the lived experience of fathers. Most of the research published on parents and suicide bereavement focuses mostly on mothers' lived experiences. This research study focused on addressing this gap by purposely recruiting fathers from diverse cultural representations who have experienced the loss of at least one of their children to suicide. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit data from a representative sample of 6 fathers. Four main themes emerged from the IPA data analysis. Each of these four main superordinate themes were accompanied by at least two subordinate themes. These findings add to the field of Couple and Family Therapy more voice to the lived experience of fathers bereaved by suicide loss.
NSUWorks Citation
Rafis Nin. 2023. A Critical Analysis of Physicians Involved in Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Implementation of an Equine-Assisted Family Therapy Wellness Program. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, . (139)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_dft_etd/139.