Patterns of Social Connectedness and Shared Grief Work: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Author(s)
Forte, James A.; Barrett, Anne V.; Campbell, Mary H.
Abstract
Recent advances in the sociology of emotion have increased our appreciation for the relationship between social arrangements and the experience, expression, and management of personal emotions. Emotions such as grief have origins in group relations and vulnerability to maladaptive grief is as much a result of social environment as personality. This pilot study examines the utility of Lofland’s symbolic interactional model for assessment and intervention in social worker facilitated grief work. During face to face interviews, 20 members of a mutual aid bereavement group completed retrospective and current social network maps and grids. Resulting data suggested that shared grief work helped members constitute their social networks so that they regained the number and types of connections experienced before the involuntary loss. The establishment of supportive connections was also associated with lowered current and remembered grief. Social work practitioners might make fuller use of perceived social networks in assessing and aiding the bereaved.
