Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

Summer 8-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Marriage and Family Therapy

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Dale E. Bertram

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Lisa Merchant

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Lisa Powell

Abstract

Grief seems to affect everyone in some way over the course of life. This research conducted a thematic analysis using grounded theory methods to understand the process in which Christians overcome grief when losing a loved one. A total of six participants volunteered to be able to share their stories. The questions to be answered included: “What is the process of growing resilience among Christians who experience grief due to losing a loved one?” and “How does one’s faith impact this process of overcoming grief?” Utilizing Strauss and Corbin (1990), the data collected in this study was analyzed by open, axial, and selective coding. From the data, two selective codes emerged: 1) Enduring the struggles of grief as it leads to hope and resilience and 2) Christian faith cultivates and strengthens resilience. Christians go through a phase of struggles in which they depend on their faith to navigate through the difficulties of grief to gain resilience.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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