“NOBODY TALKS ABOUT SUICIDE, EXCEPT IF THEY’RE KIDDING”: DISENFRANCHISED GRIEF, COPING STRATEGIES, AND SUICIDE SURVIVOR IDENTITY IN PEER SUICIDE GRIEVERS By TANETTA E. ANDERSSON Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Susan W. Hinze, Ph.D. Department of Sociology CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2012 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Tanetta E. Andersson candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree*. Susan W. Hinze, PhD Chair of Committee Dale Dannefer, PhD Brian Gran, PhD Atwood Gaines, PhD May 2nd, 2012 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Professors’ Daniel Berardinelli, Ph.D and David Odell-Scott, Ph.D of Kent State University for restoring my love of learning. At Case Western Reserve University, I am especially grateful to the late Coach Bill Sudek whose assistance made it financially possible to complete my undergraduate studies. I thank other track and cross country coaches, Coach Jason Hudson and Coach Dennis Harris. I thank other members of my CWRU family including Janice Eatman Williams; Curtis T. Jewell, my friend in arms, and our mentee Frank “Nova” Polk. I am also very grateful to have received the Ruth Barber Moon Scholarship and the Patricia B. Kilpatrick Case Service Award during my studies. I am especially grateful to the Baton Rouge Crisis Center Foundation for awarding this project a dissertation research grant. The first sociology class I took as an undergraduate was taught by my dissertation advisor, Susan W. Hinze, Ph.D. I am forever grateful to her for her intellectual guidance, generosity, and belief in me. I am also deeply thankful to Dale Dannefer, Ph.D for his insight and encouragement on this journey. Brian Gran, Ph.D and Atwood Gaines, Ph.D also guided this project. I could not have completed this project without the help of Frank Campbell, Ph.D. Over the course of my graduate studies, I am grateful for the influence of Rachel Chapman, Ph.D, Angela Woollacott, Ph.D, Gunhild Hagestad, Ph.D, Rhonda Williams, Ph.D, and Sarah Toman, Ph.D. Thank you, Bertice Berry, Ph.D for the Matrix- style pearl of wisdom: “Stay in peace, on task, and immoveable. Free your mind.” Nadra Williams, Donté Gibbs, Allison George, and Aaron Perine are students whom I treasure for many reasons. I thank several graduate school peers including Dawn Aliberti, Casey Schroeder, Joshua Terchek, Adam Perzynski, Ph.D., Lynn Gannon Falletta, Ph.D, and Noah Webster, Ph.D. I thank the members of my equestrian family—a wonderful cast of eclectic characters: Kara Erdos Andrew and family; Bill and Carol Erdos; Jody Srsen, Jan Engle and I remember Jane Core, my fellow Bob Dylan fan, “Let us not talk falsely, the hour is getting late.” I acknowledge the equestrian teachers from whom I have borrowed in becoming a teacher myself. I thank Joan Iversen Goswell for receiving the United States Eventing Association’s Worth The Trust Scholarship during my doctoral studies. Most of all, I am profoundly grateful to my parents, Judith and Ben Andersson, and my brother, Mark Andersson. This work is dedicated to my study participants who courageously shared their stories of loss and those advocates who work, volunteer, or walk in aid of suicide prevention and suicide loss. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ 6 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER ONE: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................. 9 Specific aims ..................................................................................................... 9 Bereavement literature: origins and horizons. .................................... 14 Suicide and suicide bereavement. ....................................................... 22 Young adult and adult peer suicide bereavement ............................... 28 CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODS AND SAMPLE DESCRIPTION ....... 39 Procedure for collecting data. ............................................................. 45 Issues of data quality. .......................................................................... 47 Analysis............................................................................................... 52 Sample description .......................................................................................... 53 Demographic characteristics of participants ....................................... 54 Bereavement characteristics ................................................................ 54 CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF DISENFRANCHISED GRIEF IN PEERS BEREAVED BY SUICIDE .............................................................................................. 57 Peer relationships as disenfranchised relationships ........................................ 58 Relational disenfranchisement: On the outside looking in? ............... 59 Relational disenfranchisement and social support contexts: “Should I really be here?” ......................................................................................... 73 Relationships among co-survivors and social support. ....................... 79 Suicide and disenfranchising social forces ..................................................... 82 3 Memorial services, religion, and disenfranchisement......................... 82 Media, disenfranchisement, and suicide grief. .................................... 92 Schools and disenfranchised suicide loss: “And let’s all pray for her ‘cause she had more problems than any of us could understand.” ........... 95 Disenfranchising language and silencing in suicide loss: “Nobody talks about that [suicide], except if they’re kidding.” ..................................... 101 CHAPTER FOUR: COPING AND RE-ENFRANCHISING EXPERIENCES OF PEER SUICIDE ‘SURVIVORSHIP’: INDIVIDUAL, INTERMEDIARY, AND GROUP-BASED STRATEGIES.................................................................................... 108 Individualized Coping Strategies .................................................................. 110 Intermediary Coping Strategies .................................................................... 119 Psychological counseling and coping. .............................................. 119 Interpersonal advocators. .................................................................. 124 Group-Based Coping with Peer Suicide Loss ............................................... 136 Support group participation as externalized coping .......................... 137 Suicide prevention advocacy, activism, and re-enfranchised grief. .. 142 Suicide survivor identity: “I’m a survivor. This is what I went through. I lost my best friend.”.............................................................................. 169 CHAPTER FIVE: ADVANCING THE DISENFRANCHISED GRIEF FRAMEWORK, RE-ENFRANCHISEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF SUICIDE LOSS, AND SUICIDE SURVIVOR IDENTITY FINDINGS .................................................. 179 Expected study findings: Returning to study aims ....................................... 180 Study findings: Advancing and challenging the disenfranchised grief model in peer suicide loss, re-enfranchisement contexts, and survivorship identity status 184 Advancing and challenging the disenfranchised grief framework by analyzing peer suicide loss...................................................................... 184 Suicide loss disenfranchisement. ...................................................... 188 Re-enfranchising suicide loss: Group-based coping contexts and suicide survivorship......................................................................................................... 189 4 Understanding peer suicide griever re-enfranchisement at the macro- level: Out of the Darkness fundraising walks. ........................................ 190 Understanding peer suicide griever re-enfranchisement at the meso- level: Local Outreach to Survivors of Suicide (L.O.S.S.) Volunteer Programs. ................................................................................................ 205 Micro-level understandings of re-enfranchisement and identity: Suicide griever versus suicide survivor?................................................. 208 Implications of Suicide Loss Findings: Scrutinizing Commodification and Medicalization of Grief ....................................................................................... 220 Commodifying grief by selling closure. ........................................... 220 Medicalizing suicide grief? ............................................................... 223 Conclusion and future directions. ..................................................... 226 Study limitations. .............................................................................. 229 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 235 5 LIST OF TABLES Figure 1: Summary of Study Sample Information .............................................................56 6 “Nobody Talks About Suicide, Except If They’re Kidding”: Disenfranchised Grief, Coping Strategies, and Suicide Survivor Identity in Peer Suicide Grievers. ABSTRACT by TANETTA E. ANDERSSON Since Durkheim’s (1897/1979) classic