| 摘要: | 近年來，有關悲傷輔導的議題逐漸受到重視。不過，對於認知發展與表達能力均未臻成熟的兒童來說，他們在面對喪親的重大事件時，常以「否認」的防衛機轉來因應這巨大的衝擊，致使他們被誤解為不懂得悲傷的一群，而忽視了他們可能需要協助的事實。國外已有不少相關的研究，更有不少專為喪親兒童成立的輔導機構。反觀國內則鮮少有這方面的研究，而這正是本研究所要探討的主題。本研究嘗試藉由支持性團體的方式來瞭解喪親兒童的悲傷反應，同時評估支持性團體的成效。 本研究採無控制組前後測設計，研究對象為十名國小中、高年級喪親三年內的兒童，分成兩個團體（各五人）於不同時段進行，每週一次（兩小時），各進行八次。為了更全面的評估這個支持性團體方案的效果，同時更深入的描繪喪親兒童的悲傷反應，在資料的蒐集上，除了「兒童憂鬱量表」與「悲傷反應問卷」的量化資料外，更蒐集了團體進行前、中、後的各項質性資料（包括兒童自述及父母對兒童的觀察），以進行各種量化與質性資料的對照與相互印證。 研究結果顯示，此支持性團體方案的成效獲得肯定，而喪親兒童也並非不懂得悲傷，只是他們的悲傷反應不同於一般成人，其中「神奇想法」（magical thinking）似乎是造成喪親兒童強烈罪惡感的主因。另外，研究也發現，喪親兒童的社會支持薄弱，家庭與學校似乎都無法提供必要的支持與協助。基於這些發現，本研究提出若干反思與建議。至盼本研究能引發社會大眾對喪親兒童的重視，並提供相關教育工作者一些實務上的參考。
Recently the issue of grief counseling has been gaining attention in research. However, children seem to be left out of the scene. Due to their cognitive developmental stage, when confronted with the overwhelming impact of parental loss, children tend to adopt the defensive mechanism of denial. And this may explain why this group of children are frequently thought to be ignorant of what grief is. As a result, these children’s needs are constantly overlooked. In the West, there have been many studies examining related issues and the number of counseling services designated for grieving children is increasing. In Taiwan, however, there are few related studies. Hence the purpose of this study is twofold: First, through the intervention of a bereavement support group, it aims to understand the grieving experience of children; second, it attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of such a support group. This study employed a pretest-posttest design with no control group. Research participants were ten elementary school students aged 9-12, who all experienced parental loss within the past three years. The ten children were equally divided into two groups and the researcher served as the group leader for both groups. Each group attended a two-hour program weekly for eight weeks. To evaluate this support group more comprehensively and to depict these children’s grief more deeply, this study collected qualitative as well as quantitative data. Quantitative measures included “Children’s Depression Inventory” and “Children’s Bereavement Questionnaire.”Qualitative data were collected prior to, during, and post to the support group intervention, including focus group interviews, children’s self-report, and parental observations. The multiple sources of data were compared and cross-validated. The results showed that the effectiveness of the support group was confirmed, and these children did experience grief, but with expressions different from those of adults. Among their various emotions and thoughts, “magical thinking” stood out as the most important cause of their guilty feeling. In addition, it also showed that these children’s social support was severely insufficient after the event of parental loss. Based on the findings, this study made several suggestions for educators and researchers. |
