Experiences of Grief Following Road Traffic Crashes in Western Australia

Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2006 Silenced voices: Experiences of grief following road traffic crashes in Western Australia Lauren Breen Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Breen, L. (2006). Silenced voices: Experiences of grief following road traffic ashescr in Western Australia. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/9 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/9 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. 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Silenced Voices: Experiences of Grief Following Road Traffic Crashes in Western Australia Lauren Jennifer Breen BSc (Psych) Hons, Grad Cert Ed (Tertiary Teaching) Faculty of Computing, Health and Sciences Edith Cowan University Western Australia A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) Date of submission: 24 October 2006 USE OF THESIS The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis. iii Statement of Confidentiality Ethical clearance from the Edith Cowan University Ethics Committee was granted in July 2002. The confidentiality and privacy of the informants were protected at all times, including in all correspondence between myself, research supervisors, and other colleagues. Pseudonyms for the bereaved informants and their family members are used throughout the thesis. All raw data included in the thesis (i.e., verbatim quotes) were scrutinised for information that could render the informant identifiable. iv Abstract Despite the introduction of road safety measures and media campaigns, crashes are a leading cause of death in Western Australia. While economic costs of crashes are relatively easy to determine, their psychosocial burden remains appreciably under- studied, as are the social, cultural, historical, temporal, and political contexts within which grief experiences are housed. As such, I explored the experience of grief resulting from losing a loved one in a crash in Western Australia and described the influence of contextual factors on those grief experiences. Constructionist grounded theory methodology was utilised. Data were collected from two informant groups – 10 were employed in road safety and post-crash services in Western Australia and 21 were Western Australians bereaved through the loss of a family member in crashes. Data were collected via in-depth recursive interviews, a ‘scoping and profiling’ process, and public documents. The data indicate that the bereaved informants were subjected to a number of silencing processes whereby their expression of grief is constrained - by themselves, their families and social networks, the legal and service systems, and the government road safety discourse. In Chapter 4, I discuss the bereaved informants’ experience of grief and demonstrate that their experiences challenge the dominant discourse that constructs grief as a short-term, stage/phase/task-based, finite, and meaningful phenomenon that culminates in the detachment from the deceased loved one. Instead, they described their grief as unique, long-lasting, characterised by an oscillation of emotions, whereby meaning and/or positives were not found. Further, their relationships with the deceased were likely to be maintained, and meaning in or positives from the deaths of loved ones were unlikely to be found. In Chapter 5, I examine the bereaved informants’ experiences within their families and social support networks. The informants’ social networks often imposed the dominant grief narrative, leading to the deterioration and collapse of many relationships. In Chapter 6, I outline the bereaved informants’ experiences of voicelessness within the legal, service, and road safety domains. The legal conceptualisation of crashes, the reactive and superficial service system, and government bureaucracy and rhetoric served to further silence the bereaved informants’ experiences of grief. In Chapter 7, I discuss the bereaved informants’ attempts to ‘break the silence’ v by resisting the dominant discourse concerning grief, its enforcement within their social support networks, and the conceptualisations of their experiences as held within the legal, service, and road safety domains. These attempts include peer support, participation in mutual help groups, and active involvement in attempts to change government policies. I position the findings within the context of existing literature and frameworks and explicate the ways in which my study has made a substantial and novel contribution to understanding the experience of grief following crashes in Western Australia, including the implications for three key tensions in the thanatological literature - the transferability of classic grief theories, the medicalisation of grief, and the efficacy of grief interventions. In addition, I outline the strengths and limitations of the study, draw implications of and recommendations from the findings, and suggest avenues for future research. vi Declaration I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: (i) Incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education; (ii) Contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; or (iii) Contain any defamatory material. I also grant permission for the Library at Edith Cowan University to make duplicate copies of my thesis as required. Signature: _________________________ Date: _________________________ vii Acknowledgments I would like to begin by thanking the informants in this research, especially those bereaved as a result of a crash. I feel forever privileged to have listened to your stories and thank you for your time and unwavering patience. I would like to thank The Compassionate Friends and Australian Parents Against Road Trauma for assisting in the identification and recruitment of some of the informants to the study. I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervision team. My principal supervisor, Dr Moira O’Connor, is an amazing supervisor, combining a sharp intellect with empathy, support, advice, humour, and timely feedback. I couldn’t have asked for more! I would also like to thank my Associate Supervisor, Associate Professor Margaret Mitchell, who joined the team while I was writing the thesis, and my Adjunct Supervisor, Dr Christopher Sonn (Victoria University), who was instrumental in the conceptualisation and early development of the project. I would like to acknowledge all those that have shaped the project over the years – the proposal reviewers, Dr Susan Pradip Griffiths and Dr Val Roche, and those that attended my thesis proposal presentation. I didn’t give my project justice but I hope you were able to recognise its worth. Your comments and questions during the development stage of the project was invaluable in making the study stronger. I would also like to thank Professor Alison Garton, who acted as a critical reader of the entire draft. I would also like to acknowledge and thank everyone who aided and supported the study. Thank you to Tracey Ahern, Tamara Breen, Ana Ilijovska, and Sue Timewell for your time and effort in transcribing some of the interviews, which saved me many hours. Thanks are also due to the support staff in the School of Psychology at Edith Cowan University – Trish Burke, Carole Gamsby, Nicky Kemp, Ho Lai Thuan, Sue Timewell, and Alison Young. Thank you to my friends and (fellow sufferers) at university for travelling this journey with me. I would especially like to acknowledge Dr Dawn Darlaston-Jones for her assistance and encouragement at various stages of the study, and reading ALL my chapter drafts before I showed my supervisors! I would like to thank my family for their unwavering support while I studied at university. I would especially like to acknowledge my mum, Jenny Breen, who rearranged her work hours and used some of her annual leave to look after my daughter one day a week so I could keep writing. Finally, to my husband Shannan Maloney, for always believing I could do it, and our daughter Mia. I dedicate this to you both. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction.......................................................................................... 1 A Comparison of Australian and International

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