The Rare Life: Examining Parents' Grief, Barriers, and Facilitators Associated with Caring for Medically Complex Children.

Caring for medically complex children (MCC) involves physical, financial, and emotional challenges for parents, who are often grieving the loss of their expectations or vision for a healthy child. We applied Miles' parental grief model to explore the experiences of 25 parent-caregivers who were interviewed for The Rare Life, a podcast in which a mother of a MCC interviews parents about their experiences caring for their MCC. We characterize parent-caregivers' experiences of shock; their intense grief, including yearning, helplessness, physical symptoms, behavioral changes, and a search for meaning; and the reorganization that helped them accept their parenting reality. In addition, we identified communicative barriers and facilitators that hindered and supported parent-caregivers' movement through the phases of grief.

Communication Apprehension About Death, Religious Group Affiliation, and Religiosity: Predictors of Organ and Body Donation Decisions.

Communication willingness has previously been identified as an important communication factor in influencing individuals' decisions to become an organ donor. Missing from this conversation is the role of communication apprehension about death and its impact on donation decisions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between communication apprehension about death, religiosity, religious affiliation, and donation decisions. Three hundred and thirty-three individuals participated in an online survey. Findings suggest that communication apprehension about death, especially communication avoidance about death, negatively impact donation decisions. In addition, religiosity and affiliation with a specific religion also negatively impact donation decisions. These variables were also predictors of organ and body donation. The findings show a need for more research on what prevents conversations about donation. In addition, the stark difference between organ donation likelihood and body donation likelihood underscores the need for communication scholars to examine communication about body donation.

A Model of Transcorporeal Communication: Communication Toward/With/to the Deceased.

Research indicates that people maintain a connection with deceased loved ones, which can be healthy for the bereaved individuals. To maintain these bonds, people readily admit to communicating with the deceased. Although communication with the deceased shares similarities with traditional models of interpersonal communication, it is distinctly different. Interviews with 20 individuals revealed support for a model of transcorporeal communication, communication to people who do not maintain a physical presence. This communication includes the components of sender, inner representation of the deceased as receiver, message, feedback based on what the sender believes the deceased would say, and a metaphysical element. Implications of transcorporeal communication for griefwork are also discussed.

R.I.P. Kutner: Parasocial Grief Following the Death of a Television Character.

In 2009, Lawrence Kutner, a character on television's House, M.D., unexpectedly committed suicide. A Facebook memorial group was created shortly thereafter in memory of the fictional character. A thematic analysis of fan postings on Kutner's Facebook memorial page revealed evidence of people experiencing parasocial grief as they displayed emotional expressions of grief, reminisced, and advocated for Kutner. Through thematic analysis, we discovered that elements of parasocial relationships, particularly parasocial breakups, were apparent as the members posted evidence of their grief over the loss of a television character. Moreover, this parasocial grief is likely to be disenfranchised, as the death of a television character is typically not recognized by others as a legitimate loss. This study also highlighted the role of social media as an outlet for grief as well as revealed confusion between fiction and reality resulting from social media.

"For whom the bell tolls": emotional rubbernecking in Facebook memorial groups.

Facebook memorial groups are often formed as a way for people to remember a deceased loved one. Because of the public nature of communication on Facebook, people who did not intimately know the deceased (emotional rubberneckers) can locate memorial groups and watch as people grieve the loss of their friend or family member. Using grounded theory methods, the author identified and examined the function of the rubberneckers' messages posted on 10 Facebook memorial group walls. Emotional rubberneckers identified with the deceased and expressed sadness at their death, indicating a connection with the deceased stranger.

"It may not be pretty, but it's honest": examining parental grief on the Callapitter blog.

Following the death of a child, parents are turning to alternative means of communication to express their grief In this instrumental case study, the authors explore how 1 woman, Amy Ambrusko, communicates her grief experience on her blog, emotionally negotiating loss and parental grief. Guided by M. S. Miles's (1984) parental grief model, the authors argue that the Callapitter blog serves as a case study illustration of online parental grief. Specifically, Ambrusko displays parental grief in three ways: (re)questioning reality, experiencing discursive and corporeal guilt, and rationalizing a "new normal." This analysis highlights the changing nature of communicating about grief and underscores how grief blogs challenge contemporary social death rules.

Exploiting loss?: ethical considerations, boundaries, and opportunities for the study of death and grief online.

More people are turning to the Internet to communicate about dying, death, and grief experiences. This theoretical article explores the ethical dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities presented to researchers interested in exploring how death and grief are communicated online. Weaving together the literatures of computer-mediated communication and thanatology (dying and death), we discuss the ways in which many common ethical dilemmas uniquely manifest related to death and grief. We also explore the emotional impact studying death and grief online has on researchers and the importance of thinking about researcher emotions on scholars who study these issues. We end with recommendations of how to move forward in the dialogue about ethics and studying death and grief online.

Maintaining relational continuity with the deceased on Facebook.

Scholars have noted that communication helps maintain relational continuity despite physical absence; yet, the specific role of communication in continuing a relationship with the deceased has not been analyzed. In this study, messages directed to the deceased on Facebook memorial group walls were examined to explore how grieving individuals utilize Facebook memorial groups in order to make sense of the death of a loved one and reconnect with the deceased. Using a grounded theory approach, message topics and apparent grief-related functions served by messages were identified and characterized. Initial observation revealed that grieving individuals wrote to the deceased as if the deceased could read the messages, which is a unique type of communication. The communication written to the deceased individuals appeared to serve two functions for those writing the messages: (1) Sensemaking; and (2) Continuing Bonds, or upholding relational continuity, with the deceased.