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Abstract
Mirzamani,
Mahmoud
and Bolton, Derek. "Mothers' Psychological
Adjustment Following Disaster Affecting Their Children," Journal
of
Psychology;
2003, 137:1 (January), 54-63
The authors investigated the
psychological adjustment of 37 British
women whose adolescent children survived the cruise ship Jupiter's
sinking in
1988, about 6 years previously. They compared these
women with a group of widows (N = 18) and a
group of women who had suffered no major negative life event (N = 15).
Psychological adjustment of the 37 women was assessed with the Schedule
for
Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Lifetime Version (SADS-L; R. L.
Spitzer
& J. Endicott, 1975) and various standard
questionnaires. The women whose children had
been involved in the disaster were found to have suffered a greater
number of
incidents of psychological distress in the period since the disaster
than the
women who had suffered no major negative life events but fewer
incidents
of psychological distress than the widows. The significance of these
findings
and clinical implications are discussed.
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