From I-Coping To We-Coping: A Qualitative Study on Parent–Child Dyadic Coping in Widowed Families

Dyadic coping refers to the ways in which two closely connected people (a dyad) interact and mutually support each other when dealing with a stressful situation that impacts them both. It involves the coping behaviors, thought processes, communication styles, and other mechanisms that unfold within a dyadic framework.

Supportive dyadic coping:

• One partner directly helps the other partner cope with a stressor through emotional or practical support.
• For example, providing advice, empathy, reassurance, taking on chores, etc. to ease the stressed partner’s burden.
• This has the secondary benefit of also reducing the support provider’s stress since their partner’s wellbeing affects their own.

Common dyadic coping:

• Both partners are under stress and cope together in a joint effort.
• Could involve things like problem-solving together, seeking out information together, emotional sharing, or relaxing together,
• Helps them cope with shared stressors like relationship conflicts, financial problems, illness of a child, etc.

Delegated dyadic coping:

The key aspect is both partners participating in the coping process – whether symmetrically working together or by one supporting the other. This mutual coping helps manage the stressor as well as strengthens the relationship by fostering trust, commitment and a sense of “we-ness”.

In the context of this study looking at parent-child units after spousal/parental loss, dyadic coping captures how the bereaved parent and children interact, communicate, and support one another in grieving and adjusting to their loss over time as an interconnected dyad.

Jiao, K., & Chow, A. Y. M. (2023). From i-coping to we-coping: A retrospective qualitative study on parent–child dyadic coping in widowed families. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(8), 1200–1212. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001110

Key Points

• The study explores parent-child dyadic coping behaviors and processes when facing spousal/parental loss in widowed families.
• Dyadic coping starts with “we”-related cognitions about the loss, life, and relationships.
• Four main themes were identified: dyadic coping-related cognitions, loss-oriented dyadic coping, restoration-oriented dyadic coping, and contextual factors.
• Limitations include retrospective data, single-culture sampling, and a lack of sibling and negative coping exploration.
• The study extends individual coping perspectives to a we-coping family perspective and suggests implications for bereavement theories and intervention.

Rationale

Most bereavement coping theories adopt an individual perspective, while the family mutual interaction perspective is understudied (Jiao et al., 2021).

Although a few studies reveal the importance of family interactions like communication and relationships, dyadic coping, reflecting interdependent coping processes between a dyad facing shared stressors, remains unexplored in parent-child relationships coping with bereavement (Jiao et al., 2021).

This study aimed to address these gaps by exploring parent-child dyadic coping in widowed families to inform related theories and practices.

The researchers highlighted that no prior theories or models existed to explain or represent bereavement dyadic coping within parent-child dyads. Thus this was an initial and novel conceptual model developed through the analysis to address this gap. It has significant potential to inform future research and clinical work with bereaved families.

Method

• Qualitative semi-structured interviews regarding the dyadic coping process were conducted with bereaved parents (n = 9) and children (n = 11) from 19 widowed families in China.
• Interview data were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory methodology involving initial coding, focused coding for key themes, constant comparison, and theory development.

Sample

• Convenience and quota sampling were used to ensure participant diversity regarding children’s age at parental death, parental status, sibling status, etc.
• The final sample included 9 widowed parents (8 females, aged 37-52 years) and 11 bereaved children (10 females, aged 19-30 years) representing 19 families.

Results

Four main themes were identified: dyadic coping-related cognitions, loss-oriented dyadic coping, restoration-oriented dyadic coping, and contextual factors.

1. Dyadic coping starts with perceiving the loss as shared (“we”-loss), reflecting on interdependent post-loss life (“we”-life), and recognizing each other’s existence as meaningful (“we”-meaning).
   
   “We both faced this together. She can feel the strength I gave her, and I can also feel the strength from her. It’s mutual. We both share this. Being a parent and child means that we deal with difficulties in life together.” (P01, surviving parent)
2. Loss-oriented coping behaviors include dealing with each other’s grief reactions, guilt feelings, facing shared grief, revisiting positive memories together, and handling death practicalities.
   
   “When my mother had strong emotions, I tried to comfort her by saying that things will be fine, and it will pass. Things like that. In the beginning, she could not sleep well, we shared a bed at that time because that made her feel better.” (C11, bereaved child)
3. Restoration-oriented coping involves caregiving, surrogate duties, encouraging moving forward, communicating, and handling issues in post-loss life adjustment.
   
   “In fact, at first, I had no energy for life at all. I would just lay on the couch all day, and then my kids would come over and say, “Mom, please don’t sleep. Will you play with me?” I was thinking that I would cause more harm for my children if I stayed in this state. So, I should make my condition better first. Then I started going out and doing yoga.” (P02, surviving parent)
4. Contextual factors like child development stage, family finances, cause of death, and social support influence dyadic coping behaviors.

Conceptualization model of bereavement dyadic coping

Through multiple stages of data analysis and theme integration, they synthesized the findings to create a model that captures bereavement dyadic coping within widowed families.

• The premises of dyadic coping: Common cognitive perceptions like we-loss, we-life, we-meaning that enable dyadic coping behaviors
• Two orientations that dyadic coping behaviors take: Loss-oriented (dealing with grief reactions, death-related practicalities) and restoration-oriented (encouraging life adjustments)
• Three foci that describe who the dyadic coping behaviors target: thou-focused, we-focused, and I-focused
• Contextual factors on multiple levels (individual, dyadic, bereavement-related, social) that shape dyadic coping

Insight

• This study pioneers the under-explored area of interactional-level coping in bereaved families from a we- rather than I-perspective.
• This pioneering study explored dyadic coping interactions neglected in current bereavement research and linked the findings to central theoretical frameworks like the meaning-making and dual-process models to advance conceptual understanding.
• The in-depth results reveal the interactive pathways through which individual and family tasks proposed in existing theories may be achieved, significantly improving the applicability of these theories.

Strengths

• Adopts a constructivist grounded theory approach suitable for unexplored research areas.
• Uses effective validation strategies, including constant comparison, collaborative coding/discussion, bracketing memos.
• Highlights the bidirectionality and interdependence in parent-child coping interactions.
• Develops a conceptual framework summarizing key constructs and processes of bereavement dyadic coping.

Limitations

• Retrospective data may involve reconstructed biases.
• Convenience sampling risks selection bias.
• Single culture limits generalizability across cultures.
• Data did not capture sibling subsystems or negative coping behaviors.

Implications

• Provides empirical evidence on the applicability of adapting dyadic coping and family perspectives in bereavement theories.
• Informs future quantitative studies to examine influencing factors and outcomes of different dyadic coping strategies.
• The proposed conceptual framework enriches current individual-focused bereavement coping theories and provides implications for future research and practice.
• Offers guidance for professional assessment and intervention design regarding facilitating “we”-cognitions, addressing both loss and restoration issues, and leveraging benign social support.

References

Jiao, K., Chow, A. Y. M., & Chen, C. (2021). Dyadic relationships between a surviving parent and children in widowed families: A systematic scoping review. Family Process, 60(3), 888–903. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12610

Keep Learning

Here are some suggested Socratic discussion questions for a college class reading this paper:

1. How might cultural factors influence whether bereaved family members perceive loss as an individual or shared issue? What examples can you think of?
2. In what ways, if any, do the study’s findings challenge prevailing Western notions of grief as an intrapersonal emotional process centered on the individual?
3. How might the three foci of dyadic coping behaviors (thou-, we-, and I-focused) play out differently in families of varying compositions (e.g. single- vs. multiple-child, blended families vs. nuclear families)?
4. What role, if any, might siblings play in the parent-child dyadic coping process explored in this study? In what ways might sibling subsystems interact with or influence the parent-child coping documented here?
5. Building on this study’s model, what negative or detrimental dyadic coping behaviors might also arise alongside the positive coping explored here? What examples might occur and how might they influence individual and relational outcomes?
6. What ethical considerations, if any, should guide researchers seeking to experimentally test or manipulate factors believed to enhance dyadic coping capacities and processes in recently bereaved family members? Where is the line regarding unintended harm?

Further Reading

Bodenmann, G. (2005). Dyadic coping and its significance for marital functioning.

Falconier, M. K., & Kuhn, R. (2019). Dyadic coping in couples: A conceptual integration and a review of the empirical literature. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 571.

Falconier, M. K., Jackson, J. B., Hilpert, P., & Bodenmann, G. (2015). Dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 42, 28-46.