COPING WITH LIFE CRISES An Integrated Approach

The Plenum Series on Stress and Coping

Series Editor: Donald Meichenbaum, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Editorial Board: Bruce P. Dohrenwend, Columbia University Marianne Frankenhaeuser, University of Stockholm Norman Garmezy, University of Minnesota Mardi J. Horowitz, University of California Medical School,

San Francisco Richard S. Lazarus, University of California, Berkeley Michael Rutter, University of London Dennis C. Turk, University of Pittsburgh Camille Wortman, University of Michigan

COPING WITH LIFE CRISIS An Integrated Approach Edited by Rudolf H. Moos

Forthcoming DYNAMICS OF STRESS Physiological, Psychological, and Social Perspectives Edited by Mortimer H. Appley and Richard A. Trumbull

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.

COPING WITH LIFE CRISES An Integrated Approach

Edited by

Rudolf H. Moos Stanfard University and Veterans Administration Medical Center Pala Alto, California

In collaboration with Jeanne A. Schaefer

SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Coping with life crises.

Includes bibliographical references and index. /. Adjustment (Psychology). 2. Life change events. 3. Stress (Psychology). 4.

Developmental psychology. 1. Moos, Rudolf H., 1934- . H. Schaefer, Jeanne A. BF335.C59 1986 155 85-28149 ISBN 978-0-306-42144-0 ISBN 978-1-4684-7021-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4684-7021-5

First Printing-February 1986 Second Printing- August 1987

© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1986

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be rcproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from thc Publisher

Contributors

David Balk, Ph.D., Director of Program Evaluation, La Frontera Center, Tucson, Arizona

Allan Beigel, M.D., Director, Southern Arizona Mental Health Center, Tucson, Arizona

Michael R. Berren, Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation, Southern Arizona Mental Health Center, Tucson, Arizona

Lesley Bradbury, Repatriation General Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Leland P. Bradford, deceased, a founder and former director of the National Training Laboratory, Arlington, Virginia

Kathleen B. Bryer, M.F.T., West End Medical Center, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Ann Wolbert Burgess, R.N., D.N.Sc., Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Paul Chodoff, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, George Wash­ington University, Washington, D.C.

Eve K.Brown Crandall, R.N., M.S., M.N., School of Nursing, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas

Andre P. Derdeyn, M.D., Division of Child and Adolescent Psy­chiatry, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottes­ville, Virginia

Esther Elizur, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Kibbutz Child and Family Clinic, Derech Haifa 147, Tel Aviv, Israel

Arthur B. Elster, M.D., College of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Stuart Ghertner, Ph.D., Director of Treatment Support Services, Southern Arizona Mental Health Center, Tucson, Arizona

v

VI CONTRIBUTORS

Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

David R. Jones, Colonel, USAFSAM/NGN, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas

Mordecai Kaffman, M.D., Medical Director, Kibbutz Child and Family Clinic, Derech Haifa 147, Tel Aviv, Israel

Kenneth Kressel, Ph.D., University College, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., City University of New York, John Jay College, New York, New York

Katharyn Antle May, D.N.S., R.N., School of Nursing, Depart­ment of Family Health Care Nursing, University of Califor­nia, San Francisco, California

Margaret Shandor Miles, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., School of Nurs­ing, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Brent C. Miller, Ph.D., Department of Family and Human Devel­opment, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Jean Baker Miller, M.D., Stone Center, Wellesley College, Welles­ley, Massachusetts

Rudolf H. Moos, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behav­ioral Sciences, Stanford University and Veterans Administra­tion Medical Center, Palo Alto, California

Frank Ochberg, M.D., 4383 Maumee, Okemos, Michigan Eric Olson, Sven Rinmansgaten, 3 TRIS-11237, Stockholm,

Sweden Susan Panzarine, R.N., Ph.D., School of Nursing, University of

Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland Dorothy Paulay, L.C.S.W., 10401 Wilshire Boulevard, Los An­

geles, California Jane W. Ransom, M.S.W., The Department of Social Services,

Charlottesville, Virginia Beverly Raphael, M.D., Faculty of Medicine, University of New­

castle, New South Wales, Australia Betsy Robinson, Ph.D., Division of Family and Community Medi­

cine, University of California, San Francisco, California Jeanne A. Schaefer, R.N., Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and

Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University and Veterans Ad­ministration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California

CONTRIBUTORS vii

Stephen Schlesinger, M.D., Division of Child and Adolescent Psy­chiatry, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottes­ville, Virginia

Bruce Singh, Faculty of Medicine, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

Denise A. Skinner, Ph.D., Department of Human Development, Family Relations, and Community Educational Services, Uni­versity of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin

Carlos E. Sluzki, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Donna L. Sollie, Department of Home and Family Life, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Lois M. Tamir, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Dallas, Texas

Lenore C. Terr, M.D., 450 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California Majda Thurnher, Ph.D., Human Development and Aging Pro­

gram, University of California, San Francisco, California Judith S. Wallerstein, Ph.D., Center for the Family in Transition,

Corte Madera, California Robert S. Weiss, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of

Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts Cindy Cook Williams, R.N., M.S.W., Survey Research Center,

Institute for Social Research, Social Environment and Health Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Jacqueline P. Wiseman, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Univer­sity of California-San Diego, La lo11a, California

Preface

This book examines new developments in the area of human competence and coping behavior. It sets forth a conceptual framework that considers the interplay between environmental contexts and personal resources and their impact on how indi­viduals cope with life transitions and crises. The selections cover the tasks confronted in varied life crises and describe the coping strategies employed in managing them. The material identifies the long-term effects of such life events as divorce and bereave­ment as well as the way in which these stressors can promote personal growth and maturity. The book contains a broad selec­tion of recent literature on coping and adaptation, integrative commentaries that provide the background for each of the areas as well as conceptual linkages among them, and an introductory overview that presents a general perspective on human compe­tence and coping. Illustrative case examples are included.

The first part of the book is organized chronologically ac­cording to developmental life transitions confronted by many people-from the childhood years through adolescence, career choice and parenthood, divorce and remarriage, middle age and retirement, and death and bereavement. The second part covers unusual life crises and other hazards that typically involve ex­treme stress such as man-made and natural disasters and terrorism.

The book highlights effective coping behavior among healthy individuals rather than psychological breakdown and psychiatric symptoms. The emphasis is on successful adaptation, the ability to cope with life transitions and crises, and the process by which such

ix

x PREFACf.".

crises can promote personal maturity. The selections are drawn from a wide range of disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, gerontology, sociology, political science, and social work. The ma­terial reviews recent developments in these areas; most of the articles were published in the 1980s. Thus, the selections cover newly emerging patterns of life transitions, such as dual-career families and the process of remarriage and stepfamily formation after divorce. Other timely topics involve the course of adaptation to terrorism and rape and patterns of long-term adjustment among Vietnam veterans and prisoners of war.

Coping with Life Crises: An Integrated Approach is broadly con­ceived to meet the needs of a diverse audience. There is a wealth of knowledge about how individuals manage diverse life events, but the information is scattered widely throughout the literature. The selections included here were identified after a search of well over 100 journals and periodicals. The developmental life-cycle focus will make the book useful for undergraduate courses on the psychology of adjustment, personality theory and assessment, ab­normal psychology, and life-span psychology. The selections are also appropriate for courses in the health sciences, such as com­munity health, family medicine, psychiatry, and epidemiology, and they should be of interest to students in schools of nursing, social work, and public health.

The concepts and practical ideas are of special value to social workers, family and marital counselors, individual and group therapists, and other counselors who work in mental health care settings. They will also be useful in training programs for school psychologists, vocational counselors, and paraprofessionals who work with individuals who are experiencing varied life crises.

The book has 11 parts. Part I provides an overview of the broad perspectives that have shaped current approaches to the study of life crises: evolutionary theory and an emphasis on be­havioral adaptation, psychoanalysis and ideas about personal ful­fillment and growth, a life-cycle focus on human development, and observations on the process of coping with extreme life crises. The overview describes the formulation of crisis theory and pres­ents a conceptual approach to understand the development of life crises and transitions and the forces that affect their outcome.

Parts II through VII provide information on developmental

PREFACE xi

life transitions. Part II covers childhood and the early years and emphasizes the psychological tasks faced by children of divorce and children's bereavement reactions following the death of a parent. Part III considers adolescence and the high school years. The articles address the experience of adolescents in single-par­ent households, adolescents' grief reactions and changes in self­concept following the death of a sibling, and the coping strategies of adolescent expectant fathers.

Part IV highlights issues of career choice and parenthood. The selections cover dual-career family life-styles and coping be­havior, the changing reactions of first-time fathers during their partner's pregnancy, and the issues couples face in managing the first year of parenthood. Part V describes the increasingly com­mon life transitions of divorce and remarriage. The selections highlight the stages of a couple's decision making and coping with divorce, the patterns of psychological recovery after divorce among low-income single parents, and the tasks involved in re­marriage and the formation of effective and satisfying step­families.

Part VI considers middle age and retirement. The articles emphasize the tasks and transitions faced by men at l11idlife, the issues confronted by middle-aged persons (mostly women) who become caregivers for their infirm and elderly parents, and the problems that may arise when individuals retire from active, pro­ductive careers and the ways in which these problems can be overcome. Part VII, the last section on life transitions, focuses on death and bereavement. The first selection is a poignant personal account of how a dedicated woman coped with the slow decline and eventual death of her husband after a critical injury sustained in a sudden accident. The other articles cover how bereaved par­ents search for meaning to help them come to terms with their child's death, and the way in which Amish beliefs and rituals about death and their family and community support systems help survivors adapt.

Parts VIII through XI consider the process of coping with unusual life crises. Part VIII describes special family stressors and emphasizes how women try to adapt to an alcoholic husband and the relative effectiveness of some of their coping styles. We also focus on how relocation and migration create complex problems

xii PREFACE

and conflicts and on how families cope with these issues and adapt to their new home.

Part IX concentrates on man-made and natural disasters. The articles present a typology by which to classify disasters, de­scribe the experiences of residents of a small West Virginia min­ing town in the aftermath of a devastating flood, and consider how emergency rescue workers and other helpers in a disaster manage the special stressors they experience.

Part X turns to the growing prevalence of violence and ter­rorism. The selections consider the psychic trauma and process of adaptation among children involved in a school-bus kidnapping, the adaptive strategies employed by rape victims and how they foreshadow eventual patterns of recovery, and the short- and long-term coping styles that lead to adjustment among the sur­vivors of terrorism.

The concluding Part XI considers war and imprisonment. The material describes how Vietnam veterans often are haunted by painful memories and search for a meaningful way to com­prehend them, how repatriated prisoners of war conceptualize and try to come to terms with their experience, and the ways in which some individuals managed to survive the Nazi Holocaust.

This book can be used together with a companion volume: Coping with Physical Illness: New Perspectives (Plenum, 1984). The companion volume covers coping with selected health crises, such as birth defects and perinatal death, childhood and adult cancer, and chronic physical disability. It also considers the "crisis of treatment" and the coping tasks evoked by the hospital environ­ment and radical new medical procedures as well as the stressors faced by health-care staff and issues elicited by death and the fear of dying. Both books highlight the idea that a life crisis is a critical juncture-a key turning point-during which individuals 'and their families are uniquely open to the positive influence of pro­fessional caregivers.

Jeanne Schaefer helped me compile and organize this book. She searched through an extensive amount of information, as­sisted in selecting the articles, and co-authored the overview chap­ter and the commentaries. The work was supported in part by Grant MH28177 from the National Institute of Mental Health, Grants AA02863 and AA06699 from the National Institute on

PREFACE xiii

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Veterans Administration Medical and Health Services Research and Development Service research funds. I wish to thank Adrienne Juliano and Pauline Burton who performed word-processing and secretarial tasks in­volved in the preparation of the book.

This book is for Karen. Fortunately, she has experienced only minor life crises thus far, though she might dispute this judgment. I hope she manages any future problems at least as well as she coped with the "Big C." I like to think that the events and changes she experiences will help her grow and make her life more vital and fulfilling.

RUDOLF H. Moos

Contents

I. OVERVIEW AND PERSPECTIVE 1

1. Life Transitions and Crises: A Conceptual Overview 3

Rudolf H. Moos and Jeanne A. Schaefer

II. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: CHILDHOOD AND THE EARLY YEARS 29

2. Children of Divorce: The Psychological Tasks of the Child 35

Judith S . Wallerstein

3. Children's Bereavement Reactions Following Death of the Father 49

Esther Elizur and Mordecai Kaffman

III. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: ADOLESCENCE AND THE HIGH SCHOOL YEARS 59

4. Growing Up a Little Faster: The Experience of Growing Up in a Single-Parent Household 65

Robert S. Weiss

xv

XVI CONTENTS

5. Adolescents' Grief Reactions and Self-Concept Perceptions Following Sibling Death 75

David Balk

6. Coping in a Group of Expectant Adolescent Fathers 87

Susan Panzarine and Arthur B. Elster

IV. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: CAREER CHOICE AND PARENTHOOD 97

7. Dual-Career Family Stress and Coping 103 Denise A. Skinner

8. Three Phases of Father Involvement in Pregnancy 115

Katharyn Antle May

9. Normal Stresses during the Transition to Parenthood 129

Brent C. Miller and Donna L. Sollie

V. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE 139

10. Patterns of Coping in Divorce 145 Kenneth Kressel

11. Psychological Recovery in Low-Income Single Parents 155

Jean Baker Miller

12. A Stepfamily in Formation 165 Jane W. Ransom, Stephen Schlesinger, and Andre P. Derdeyn

CONTENTS xvii

VI. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: MIDDLE AGE AND RETIREMENT 179

13. Men at Middle Age: Developmental Transitions 185 Lois M. Tamir

14. Taking Care of Aged Parents: A Family Cycle Transition 195

Betsy Robinson and Majda Thurnher

15. Can You Survive Your Retirement? 211 Leland P. Bradford

VII. DEVELOPMENTAL LIFE TRANSITIONS: DEATH AND BEREAVEMENT 221

16. Slow Death: One Survivor's Experience 227 Dorothy Paulay

17. The Search for Meaning and Its Potential for Affecting Growth in Bereaved Parents 235

Margaret Shandor Miles and Eva K. Brown Crandall

18. The Amish Way of Death: A Study of Family Support Systems 245

Kathleen B. Bryer

VIII. COPING WITH UNUSUAL CRISES: SPECIAL FAMILY STRESSORS 257

19. The "Home Treatment": The First Steps in Trying to Cope with an Alcoholic Husband 263

Jacqueline P. Wiseman

20. Migration and Family Conflict 277 Carlos E. Sluzki

xviii CONTENTS

IX. COPING WITH UNUSUAL CRISES: MAN-MADE AND NATURAL DISASTERS 289

21. A Typology for the Classification of Disasters 295 Michael R. Berren, Allan Beigel, and Stuart Ghertner

22. The Human Meaning of Total Disaster: The Buffalo Creek Experience 307

Robert Jay Lifton and Eric Olson

23. Disaster: The Helper's Perspective 323 Beverly Raphael, Bruce Singh, and Lesley Bradbury

X. COPING WITH UNUSUAL CRISES: VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM 331

24. Psychic Trauma in Children: Observations Following the Chowchilla School-Bus Kidnapping 337

Lenore C. T err

25. Adaptive Strategies and Recovery from Rape 353 Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom

26. The Victim of Terrorism 367 Frank Ochberg

XI. COPING WITH UNUSUAL CRISES: WAR AND IMPRISONMENT 377

27. The Mental Foxhole: The Vietnam Veteran's Search for Meaning 385

Cindy Cook Williams

28. What Repatriated Prisoners of War Wrote about Themselves 397

David R. Jones

CONTENTS

29. Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust Paul Chodoff

Author Index 415

Su~ject Index 421

xix

407