1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«We are interested in understanding what happens to a couple’s marriage after the death of their infant and in identifying factors that might explain why some marriages grow or remain stable while others decline. » (p. 2)

2. Méthode

Échantillo/Matériau :
« 115 couples lost an infant (greater than 20 weeks of gestation and less than 1 year of age) at one of the five Montreal university teaching hospital.57 (husbands and wives who had lost an infant participated in the study. » (p. 5)

Instruments :
- « Personal Assessment of Intimacy in relationships assesses properties of the marital relationship in terms of perceived intimacy within the past month. » (p. 6);
- « Bereavement Experience Questionnaire (BEQ): measured the behavioral/emotional manifestations of parental grief. » (p. 6);
- « Modified Somatic perception Questionnaire (MSPQ): who meausured the physical aspects of grief (i.e. somatization). » (p. 6)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« This follow-up study examined how marital intimacy changes over time on bereaved couples and how their marriage are affected by the death of their infant. A group of thirty-one bereaved couples who two to four years earlier had lost an infant () 20 weeks gestation and (1 year of age) were revisited in their home twenty-four months after the initial home visit. Couple did report a significant drop in sexual intimacy at follow-up compared to before the loss and at the initial home visit. Moreover, wives reported less emotional intimacy overall, than did their husbands. In contrast to wives whose own initial grief responses predicted their feelings about their marriage two years later, intensity of husband’s initial grief response did not affect their relationship with their wives but, rather a more powerful predictor was their wives’ initial reactions, the early state of their marriage (whether they had considered separating), and whether or not they had warning of the impending death. Finally, there is some evidence that women are affected in part, by their husbands’ grief. » (p. 1)