The Effect Of Autobiographical Memory And Familism Culture On The Mental Health Of People Who Lose Their Only Child

Mental health is very important for everyone.Effective mental health education and psychological assistance for some specific groups should be further studied and explored.Shiduers refer to those who neither produce offspring nor adopt another child after their only child has died.There is a huge group of shiduers,and their mental health status is of wide concern.In this research,shiduers' mental health is studied from the perspective of autobiographical memory and familism culture,which not only enriches and develops the autobiographical memory theory,grief theory and mental health theory,but is also conducive to the development of social work and mental intervention schemes for shiduers taking into account of the familism culture's functions and based on autobiographical memory to help shiduers improve their mental health.Through convenient sampling and snowball sampling,Research I and Research II carry out questionnaire surveys on 466 and 372 shiduers respectively by combination of group testing and individual testing.Through the nonprobability purposive sampling approach,Research III carries out in-depth interviews with 7 shiduers with a semi-structured interview outline.The main findings are as follows:1)The detection rates of four emotional disorders,namely depression,anxiety,posttraumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder,of these shiduers are 94.7%,82.6%,47.9% and 23.4% respectively.Posttraumatic growth shows no significant correlation with the four emotional disorders.Hope has a significant negative correlation with the four emotional disorders.In terms of demographic characteristics,the scores of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in female shiduers were significantly higher than those in male shiduers,but there was no significant difference in the scores of anxiety,prolonged grief disorder,posttraumatic growth and hope between male and female shiduers.There were significant differences in the scores of post-traumatic stress disorder,prolonged grief disorder and posttraumatic growth among shiduers with different educational levels,and those with junior secondary education or below obtained the lowest scores in the above aspect,while there was no significant difference in the scores of depression,anxiety and hope.Economic status was negatively correlated with depression,positively correlated with posttraumatic growth and hope,and not significantly correlated with anxiety,post-traumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder.In terms of loss characteristics,the length of death showed a critical significant negative correlation with depression and prolonged grief disorder,a significant negative correlation with anxiety,and no significant correlation with post-traumatic stress disorder,posttraumatic growth and hope.The child's age at the time of death was positively correlated with depression and prolonged grief disorder,but not significantly correlated with anxiety,post-traumatic stress disorder,posttraumatic growth and hope.The scores of post-traumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder in shiduers who lost their daughter was significantly higher than those who lost their son,while there was no significant difference in the scores of depression,anxiety,posttraumatic growth and hope between those who lost their daughter or son.The score of post-traumatic stress disorder in those who had anticipated the loss was significantly lower than that in those who had not anticipated the loss,and the score of posttraumatic growth in those who had anticipated the loss was significantly higher than that in those who had not anticipated the loss.There was no significant difference in the scores of depression,anxiety,prolonged grief and hope between those who had anticipated the loss or not.In terms of grief rituals and the support of relatives,in general,they both are beneficial to the mental health of shiduers.However,continuous grief rituals in daily life can simultaneously positively predict prolonged grief and post-traumatic growth.2)The autobiographical memory function of shiduers has negative effects on depression,post-traumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder,and has a positive effect on posttraumatic growth,and has no effect on anxiety or hope.Familism emotion plays a moderating role in the effects of autobiographical memory function on depression,anxiety,prolonged grief disorder and hope.Compared with shiduers with weaker familism emotion,the autobiographical memory function of those with stronger familism emotion has higher negative effects on depression,anxiety and prolonged grief disorder,and has a higher positive effect on hope.3)The familism culture reflected by the shiduers is embodied at three levels,namely,cognition,emotion and behavior.In these three levels,familism culture is reflected in a variety of relationships of shiduers,including relationships with ancestors,the deceased child,the spouse,relatives,Tong Ming Ren,and the country.The first four types of relationships are reflections of “direct familism culture,” and the latter two types of relationships are reflections of “extended familism culture.” The relationships with the deceased child,relatives,and Tong Ming Ren are mainly supportive;the relationship with ancestors is mainly stressful,but in contemporary society,the stress is quite little;the relationship with the spouse has a dual nature;and the relationship with the country is contradictory.The main conclusions of this study are illustrated as follows: The detection rates and comorbidity rates of emotional disorders among shiduers are relatively high;shiduers with certain characteristics are more likely to suffer from emotional disorders or develop positive mental ability,so practical workers should pay particular attention to them;the function of autobiographical memory is conducive to the mental health of shiduers,and the familism emotion plays a protective moderating role.