The Process of Experience in Parents Bereaved by Child Suicide: A Grounded Theory Approach

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience process, meaning, and the essential structure of interactions in parents bereaved by their children’s suicide. To this end, 12 parents bereaved by child suicide were recruited by purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data collection period is a total of 6 months from August 2022, and 1-4 interviews were conducted per participant. Data analysis was analyzed by applying the grounded theory method. As a result of the study, 100 concepts, 44 subcategories, and 17 categories were derived. The central phenomenon was that ‘even the pain of longing buried in guilt and shame.’ The core category was derived as ‘expanding altruistic view for youth while burying the pain of longing in the heart.’ The process of experience in parents bereaved by child suicide was divided into six stages: ‘shock and collapse stage’, ‘avoidance stage’, ‘struggle stage’, ‘acceptance stage’, and ‘re-establishment stage’. This study is significant in that it provided basic data for counseling and therapeutic intervention for parents bereaved by child suicide.