Citation

Čepulienė AA, Pučinskaitė B, Spangelytė K, Skruibis P, Gailiene D. Religions (Basel) 2021; 12(9).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publications Institute)

DOI

10.3390/rel12090766

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A loved one's loss to suicide can be a traumatic experience and trigger a difficult grief process, identity changes, a loss of the sense of meaning and a spiritual crisis. Spirituality and/or religiosity (S/R) can be both an important resource and a source of stigmatisation during suicide bereavement. This study aims to synthesise the extant findings about S/R during suicide bereavement in qualitative studies. After an exhaustive selection of articles, the current review utilised a total of 484 citations and seven studies. A thematic synthesis yielded five major themes related to S/R during suicide bereavement: the need to be helped by the religious community without being judged; S/R-related experience of the deceased as a figure who continues to exist; S/R experienced without a conscious choice; conscious reach towards S/R themes; not relating to S/R during suicide bereavement. These findings indicate that the role of S/R during suicide bereavement is complex and varies from providing help to serving as a source of suffering. Hence, practitioners and religious communities should be mindful of the S/R themes during suicide bereavement. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Language: en

Keywords

Spirituality; Suicide bereavement; Religiosity; Stigmatisation