Manifestations of Levels of Functioning in Grieving Families

This article describes processes and patterns that are characteristic of levels of functioning in family systems where a child has died of cancer from two to nine years earlier. A beginning classification system is developed from Crosby and Jose's (1983) description of elements of functional and dysfunctional coping in families following a death. The analysis is based on 111 families in six states and one Canadian province. Validity is demonstrated with one subset of this sample.