November 28, 2022

The death of a child can bring about different mourning practices amongst mothers. This single event generates a varied range of affective, behavioural, and social responses in mothers, as mothers attempt to find coherence between the unexpected early death of their child and the assumption that their child will outlive them. While grief is a universal experience that such mothers face, their grief and mourning practices differ according to the unique religious affiliations and cultural environments they have been socialized into. Within just one ethnic group, the Chinese community, there can be many interpretations, beliefs, and cultural practices surrounding the event of a child’s death. In ‘Death of a child: Perspective of Chinese mothers in Singapore’ (Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 2017), Dr Sylvia Mun (KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital) and Dr Rosaleen Ow (NUS Department of Social Work) explore the lived experiences of Chinese mothers in multicultural Singapore society.

The study explores how Chinese mothers in Singapore – all from different religious backgrounds of Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity – responded during the grief and mourning period following their child’s death. It details their lived experiences from the treatment stage to the death and mourning stages in the loss of their child. Using a phenomenological framework that recognises the respondents as knowledge holders, the study describes the merging of religious worldviews with cultural practices in the mothers’ responses. While all three religions carry universal aspects such as the belief in the impermanence of life, they produce culturally specific responses and practices. Not all the Chinese mothers experienced the death and mourning of their child in the same ways, even though they go through similar processes of meaning-making, crying, seeking assurance, and establishing continuing bonds with the deceased child. The study finds that the diversity in Chinese religion, personal religious beliefs, and cultural practices had helped the mothers move on to living without the physical presence of the deceased child.

This article is a significant contribution to social work research, as it emphasises the importance of reflexive practice. From a social constructionist perspective, the study highlights the need for social work practitioners to be sensitive and respectful toward the beliefs and practices of help-seekers, who often draw upon varied spiritual/religious frameworks for a sense of coherence over the death experience of the child. Furthermore, the study compares data that provide not only universal information, but culture-specific information. It highlights the importance of taking an ecological and systemic perspective in formulating research questions. This is crucial, since almost every country has a multiethnic and multicultural population. Pivotally, the study demonstrates that it is important to look towards the help-seeker’s wider environments, which contain a diversity of resources and strategies that can contribute to the problem-solving process.

Read the full article here.