| The experience of losing a loved one to suicide is a life-altering event that affects thousands of people every year. The loss of a loved one to suicide often involves feelings of abandonment and confusion because the loved one was also the cause of his or her own death. Moreover, survivors of suicide often experience guilt, shame associated with suicide, blame, and social stigmatization. Thus, it is important to determine what factors are associated with the ability to cope with the suicide and bereavement. The question of what qualifies as "healthy bereavement" has been the focus of extensive debate. Some researchers have argued that people must experience and explore their feelings of grief and sadness to recover from their loss. More recently, however, researchers have argued that mild or absent grief symptoms are associated with healthy outcomes at long-term follow up. Some of those who show mild to absent negative affect during bereavement exhibit a repressive coping style. Are people who use a repressive coping style (i.e., "repressors") more able to cope with the loss of a loved one to suicide compared to people who do not use this coping style? To test this hypothesis, I recruited individuals who reported that they lost a loved one to suicide. I administered a working memory task, a battery of questionnaires, an interview, an IQ measure, and a test of cognitive flexibility. The results indicate that repressive coping is associated with more effective coping skills and emotional health during suicide bereavement. I argued that repressors maintain greater emotional health because they use positive reinterpretation to cope. Surprisingly, people who use repressive coping, relative to those who do not, had fewer cognitive resources. Repressors' cognitive capacity may be depleted by the use of positive reinterpretation to deal with a loved one's suicide. |
