David E Balk
Biographic Data
| ID | 4215537 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David E Balk |
| GIVEN NAMES | David E |
| FAMILY NAME | Balk |
| SIGNATURE | BALK D E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Kansas State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 39 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A lifetime of professional contributions
When we first began to think about organizing a special series of articles for Death Studies in honor of J. William (Bill) Worden, we had known Bill for many years and thought we had a pretty good ...
A Conversation with Sandra L. Bertman
Sandra L. Bertman has held several faculty positions, among them Professor of Humanities in Medicine, UMass Medical School; Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Nova Osteopathic Medicine; an
Introduction to the Special Issue
Introduction to the Special Issue: Conversations with Six Thanatology Pioneers: Preview of an Oral History Project." Death Studies, 44(10), pp. 597–598
A Conversation with Robert L. Wrenn
Robert L. Wrenn is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Arizona. During his tenure at the University of Arizona he directed the University-wide Honors Program and Student Counselin
A Conversation with Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was Professor of Sociology (Emeritus) at the University of Minnesota. In 1969, he founded and directed the Center for Death Education and Research at the University of Minnesota. Upon
A Conversation with Paul C. Rosenblatt
Paul C. Rosenblatt is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. He has wide-ranging interests in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Cultura
A Conversation with Sister Frances Dominica
Sister Frances Dominica is a member of the Anglican religious order of All Saints Sisters of the Poor. She lives in Oxford, England. She is a nurse qualified to minister to sick children and also t
A Conversation with Dame Commander Barbara Monroe
Barbara Monroe is a trustee of Marie Curie, a registered charity in England and Wales. She is a Special Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, an independent member of the Community, Voluntary
On the other hand
A grand master’s book
J. William Worden is a clinical psychologist with academic appointments at Harvard University Medical School and the Rosemead School of Psychology in California. The Association for Death Education
The Stories Students Tell
The researchers analyzed, within an Evangelical Christian university context, bereaved and non-bereaved college students' Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories for themes of death, grief, general coping, and religious coping. The study measured: (a) how students in the throes of their grief construct TAT stories, (b) differences in coping between bereaved vs. non-bereaved and women vs. men, and (c) coping for those who specifically mentioned d…
Bereavement and Depression
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) is being revised. A proposed revision hotly debated is to remove what is known as the exclusionary criterion and allow clinicians to diagnose a person with a major depressive episode within the early days and weeks following a death. The Executive Committee of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) commissioned its Scientific Advisory Co…
Prevalence and Severity of College Student Bereavement Examined in a Randomly Selected Sample
The authors used stratified random sampling to assess the prevalence and severity of bereavement in college undergraduates, providing an advance over findings that emerge from convenience sampling methods or from anecdotal observations. Prior research using convenience sampling indicated that 22% to 30% of college students are within 12 months of having experienced the death of a family member or friend. Using an ethnically diverse sample from a …
Special Issue on Bereavement, Outcomes, and Recovery
A Lantern for a Dark Journey
A Modest Proposal About Bereavement and Recovery
The author argues that the term recovery aptly describes the trajectory following the bereavement of most persons. While the term resilience has gained ascendancy in the thanatology literature and the term recovery has been dismissed as inappropriate to denote responses over time to being bereaved, the irony is that all dictionaries of the English language, other than specialized dictionaries in such fields as psychology, define resilience as abi…
Bereavement Rituals in the Muscogee Creek Tribe
A qualitative, collective case study explores bereavement rituals in the Muscogee Creek tribe. Data from interviews with 27 participants, all adult members of the tribe, revealed consensus on participation in certain bereavement rituals. Common rituals included: (a) conducting a wake service the night before burial; (b) never leaving the body alone before burial; (c) enclosing personal items and food in the casket; (d) digging graves by hand; (e)…
Scholarship, Students, and Practitioners
Increased attention is being given to bridging the gap separating thanatology researchers and practitioners. College undergraduates studying to be human service professionals represent a cohort with a significant stake in bridging this gap. Inculcating in college students expectations as well as expertise to use research as practitioners not only makes sense but also is an ethical obligation for college faculty. Two noteworthy models of academic …
Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in Bereavement
This article discusses issues in bridging the gap between research and practice in the field of bereavement. A conceptual framework is developed that emphasizes that the gulf reflects the lack of exchange and mutual influence between researchers and practitioners. Studies are presented using qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a better understanding of the nature of the gap between research and practice in bereavement. Finally recommenda…
Recovery Following Bereavement
Herman Feifel noted that appropriate attention to one's mourning and grieving allowed the dead to die and the bereaved "to redefine and reintegrate oneself into life" (H. Feifel, 1977, p. 9). The author takes this central focus on bereavement outcomes as the springboard for an examination of the concept recovery following bereavement. He examines the meanings of the terms recover and bereavement and considers the centrality of concepts from life …
College Student Bereavement, Scholarship, and the University
The prevalence of bereavement among traditional-aged college students should impel universities to assist bereaved students on their campuses. Dealing with bereavement can not only challenge a college student's completing the developmental tasks that our society sets for the later adolescent years, but also imperil the student's remaining in school and graduating. It is in the best interests of the university to develop and implement a variety of…
Hospice Care and the Bereavement Process in Two Countries
The authors examine the bereavement process within hospice programs in the United States and in the Netherlands. Topics covered include brief histories of hospice within each country, circumstances that constrain bereavement outcomes research, approaches to hospice bereavement services in each country including bereavement program protocols developed by the National Hospice Organization for programs in the United States, issues of bereavement car…
Bereavement and Spiritual Change
The thesis of this article is that bereavement is a life crisis that challenges one's assumptions about human existence and provides the grounds for spiritual change. Construing a new understanding of the meaning of human existence and revising assumptions about one's place in the universe is a singular form that indicates spiritual change at work. Three aspects must be present for a life crisis to produce spiritual change: The situation must cre…
Psychological Development During Four Years of Bereavement
Bereavement in the lives of college students is more prevalent than many persons realize. A survey replicated 4 times on the Kansas State University campus demonstrated that, at any point in time, over 25% of the students were in the 1st year of grief following the death of a family member and nearly 30% in the 1st year of grief following the death of a friend. Grief work can hinder traditional-age college students from resolving normal developme…
Tat Results in a Longitudinal Study of Bereaved College Students
The authors analyzed projective data obtained from 141 college students who wrote stories on three separate occasions to selected cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The students included 46 members of support groups for bereaved college students, 34 members of a bereavement control group, and 61 nonbereaved students. The study used a repeated-measures pretest-posttest control group design to gather longitudinal data about the trajec…
Prevalence and Severity of College Student Bereavement Examined in a Randomly Selected Sample
The authors used stratified random sampling to assess the prevalence and severity of bereavement in college undergraduates, providing an advance over findings that emerge from convenience sampling methods or from anecdotal observations. Prior research using convenience sampling indicated that 22% to 30% of college students are within 12 months of having experienced the death of a family member or friend. Using an ethnically diverse sample from a …
Death and Adolescent Bereavement
The author reviews research conducted in the 1980s regarding death and adolescent bereavement. Prior to 1981 little research attention was given to this subject. A plethora of material has appeared since then, with attention paid to adolescents bereaved over (a) a parent's death, (b) a sibling's death, and (c) their own impending death. Adolescent bereavement over a friend's death has mostly been overlooked Research needs in this field of inquiry…
Bereavement and Spiritual Change
The thesis of this article is that bereavement is a life crisis that challenges one's assumptions about human existence and provides the grounds for spiritual change. Construing a new understanding of the meaning of human existence and revising assumptions about one's place in the universe is a singular form that indicates spiritual change at work. Three aspects must be present for a life crisis to produce spiritual change: The situation must cre…
College Student Bereavement, Scholarship, and the University
The prevalence of bereavement among traditional-aged college students should impel universities to assist bereaved students on their campuses. Dealing with bereavement can not only challenge a college student's completing the developmental tasks that our society sets for the later adolescent years, but also imperil the student's remaining in school and graduating. It is in the best interests of the university to develop and implement a variety of…
The Self-Concepts of Bereaved Adolescents
The focus of this study was to investigate adolescent self-concept and the reactions of 42 adolescents whose siblings had died. After completing the OfferSelf-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ), participants were interviewed about bereavement reactions, perceptions of their personal maturity, effects on school work; and relationships with peers. The adolescents' OSIQ scores fit the results for what Offer has termed "niormal adolescents." …
Social support as an intervention withbereaved college students
The authors report on a social support group intervention to assist bereaved college students. Based on the Moos (1986) model of coping with life crises, the social support intervention was the chief component in a 2-year research project funded by the Prevention Research Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. Each support group was facilitated by a graduate student in marriage and family therapy. Support groups met eight times over a…
Tat Results in a Longitudinal Study of Bereaved College Students
The authors analyzed projective data obtained from 141 college students who wrote stories on three separate occasions to selected cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The students included 46 members of support groups for bereaved college students, 34 members of a bereavement control group, and 61 nonbereaved students. The study used a repeated-measures pretest-posttest control group design to gather longitudinal data about the trajec…
Models for understanding adolescent coping with bereavement
Several issues impinge on scholars and practitioners interested in adolescent bereavement. First and foremost, adolescent bereavement over the death of a family member or a friend is more prevalent than many persons recognize. Second, scholars and practitioners need models that link adolescent development with adolescent coping during bereavement. Third, models are needed (a) to assist in rethinking what "recovery from bereavement" denotes and (b…
Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in Bereavement
This article discusses issues in bridging the gap between research and practice in the field of bereavement. A conceptual framework is developed that emphasizes that the gulf reflects the lack of exchange and mutual influence between researchers and practitioners. Studies are presented using qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a better understanding of the nature of the gap between research and practice in bereavement. Finally recommenda…
Recovery Following Bereavement
Herman Feifel noted that appropriate attention to one's mourning and grieving allowed the dead to die and the bereaved "to redefine and reintegrate oneself into life" (H. Feifel, 1977, p. 9). The author takes this central focus on bereavement outcomes as the springboard for an examination of the concept recovery following bereavement. He examines the meanings of the terms recover and bereavement and considers the centrality of concepts from life …
Psychological Development During Four Years of Bereavement
Bereavement in the lives of college students is more prevalent than many persons realize. A survey replicated 4 times on the Kansas State University campus demonstrated that, at any point in time, over 25% of the students were in the 1st year of grief following the death of a family member and nearly 30% in the 1st year of grief following the death of a friend. Grief work can hinder traditional-age college students from resolving normal developme…
Bereavement research using control groups
Scholars should both contribute to knowledge and project research participants from harm. When research methods provoke bereaved individuals to feel their distress, are scholars obliged to do more than place some people in control groups? An ethical dilemma that emerged in a study with bereaved college students is discussed. The instruments used to gather data clearly elicited grief related distress. More bereaved students in control groups left …
A Modest Proposal About Bereavement and Recovery
The author argues that the term recovery aptly describes the trajectory following the bereavement of most persons. While the term resilience has gained ascendancy in the thanatology literature and the term recovery has been dismissed as inappropriate to denote responses over time to being bereaved, the irony is that all dictionaries of the English language, other than specialized dictionaries in such fields as psychology, define resilience as abi…
Arousing empathy and promoting prosocial behavior toward bereaved peers
The content, structure, and outcome of two classroom presentations devised for fourth- and fifth-grade children are discussed. The focus of the presentations was to convey understanding of the feelings associated with an irrevocable loss, especially a death; to consider what support a classmate might need when experiencing the loss of a brother or sister; and to practice expressing such support by means of writing a letter to a classmate whose si…
Bereavement Rituals in the Muscogee Creek Tribe
A qualitative, collective case study explores bereavement rituals in the Muscogee Creek tribe. Data from interviews with 27 participants, all adult members of the tribe, revealed consensus on participation in certain bereavement rituals. Common rituals included: (a) conducting a wake service the night before burial; (b) never leaving the body alone before burial; (c) enclosing personal items and food in the casket; (d) digging graves by hand; (e)…
Sibling death, adolescent bereavement, and religion
The growing body of scholarship on adolescent bereavement has overlooked on the whole the role of religion for grieving adolescents. In this investigation, I studied the impact that attitudes toward religion have upon the grief reactions of teenagers bereaved over a sibling's death. The phenomenon of adolescent grief is placed in the context of the cognitive, moral, and psychosocial changes occurring in teenagers' lives. The sample comprised 42 a…
The attitudes of twelve mental health agencies in phoenix toward issues of community control and participation in social action
A survey was used to compare the attitudes of twelve Phoenix area mental health agencies regarding community control and participation in social action. A modified Likert scale provided attitude choices for survey items. The researcher computed mean scores for the twelve agencies for survey items. Each agency's attitudes are compared to the attitudes of the other eleven agencies considered as a group. No agency differed significantly from the oth…
Adolescents' grief reactions and self-concept perceptions following sibling death
The media exchange
ADOLESCENT SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR by David K. Curran. Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1987
Arousing empathy and promoting prosocial behavior toward bereaved peers
The content, structure, and outcome of two classroom presentations devised for fourth- and fifth-grade children are discussed. The focus of the presentations was to convey understanding of the feelings associated with an irrevocable loss, especially a death; to consider what support a classmate might need when experiencing the loss of a brother or sister; and to practice expressing such support by means of writing a letter to a classmate whose si…
The Self-Concepts of Bereaved Adolescents
The focus of this study was to investigate adolescent self-concept and the reactions of 42 adolescents whose siblings had died. After completing the OfferSelf-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ), participants were interviewed about bereavement reactions, perceptions of their personal maturity, effects on school work; and relationships with peers. The adolescents' OSIQ scores fit the results for what Offer has termed "niormal adolescents." …
Sibling death, adolescent bereavement, and religion
The growing body of scholarship on adolescent bereavement has overlooked on the whole the role of religion for grieving adolescents. In this investigation, I studied the impact that attitudes toward religion have upon the grief reactions of teenagers bereaved over a sibling's death. The phenomenon of adolescent grief is placed in the context of the cognitive, moral, and psychosocial changes occurring in teenagers' lives. The sample comprised 42 a…
Death and Adolescent Bereavement
The author reviews research conducted in the 1980s regarding death and adolescent bereavement. Prior to 1981 little research attention was given to this subject. A plethora of material has appeared since then, with attention paid to adolescents bereaved over (a) a parent's death, (b) a sibling's death, and (c) their own impending death. Adolescent bereavement over a friend's death has mostly been overlooked Research needs in this field of inquiry…
Social support as an intervention withbereaved college students
The authors report on a social support group intervention to assist bereaved college students. Based on the Moos (1986) model of coping with life crises, the social support intervention was the chief component in a 2-year research project funded by the Prevention Research Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. Each support group was facilitated by a graduate student in marriage and family therapy. Support groups met eight times over a…
Meaning, values, needs, and multiculturalism in bereavement
Meaning, Values, Needs, and Multiculturalism in Bereavement A review of Personal Care in an Impersonal World: A Multdimesional Look at Bereavemenl, edited by John D. Morgan. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 1993. 261 pp. ISBN 0-89503-109-4. $31.95. Keviewed by Kevin Ann Oltjenhruns
Bereavement research using control groups
Scholars should both contribute to knowledge and project research participants from harm. When research methods provoke bereaved individuals to feel their distress, are scholars obliged to do more than place some people in control groups? An ethical dilemma that emerged in a study with bereaved college students is discussed. The instruments used to gather data clearly elicited grief related distress. More bereaved students in control groups left …
Introduction to the special issue
Where to start your inquiries into death anxiety
Where To Start Your Inquiries into Death Anxiety A review of Death Anxiety Handbook: Research, Instrumentation, and Application edited by Robert A. Neimeyer. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1994. 284 pp. ISBN 1-56032-282-9. $54.50. Reviewed by David C. Hill. A Complex, Difficult Topic for a Pluralistic, Secular Society A review of Death and Spirituality edited by Kenneth J. Doka (with John D. Morgan). Amityville, NY: Baywood. 1993. 406 pages. I…
Models for understanding adolescent coping with bereavement
Several issues impinge on scholars and practitioners interested in adolescent bereavement. First and foremost, adolescent bereavement over the death of a family member or a friend is more prevalent than many persons recognize. Second, scholars and practitioners need models that link adolescent development with adolescent coping during bereavement. Third, models are needed (a) to assist in rethinking what "recovery from bereavement" denotes and (b…
Death, bereavement and college students
The author presents two studies dealing with death and bereavement in the lives of college students. The first study, conducted with 994 undergraduates in an introductory course on human development, involved a survey about death and bereavement in their lives. The second study consisted of interviews with 18 undergraduates bereaved over the death of a family member or a friend. Interview topics included reminiscence, avoidance, emotions, expecta…
Psychological Development During Four Years of Bereavement
Bereavement in the lives of college students is more prevalent than many persons realize. A survey replicated 4 times on the Kansas State University campus demonstrated that, at any point in time, over 25% of the students were in the 1st year of grief following the death of a family member and nearly 30% in the 1st year of grief following the death of a friend. Grief work can hinder traditional-age college students from resolving normal developme…
Tat Results in a Longitudinal Study of Bereaved College Students
The authors analyzed projective data obtained from 141 college students who wrote stories on three separate occasions to selected cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The students included 46 members of support groups for bereaved college students, 34 members of a bereavement control group, and 61 nonbereaved students. The study used a repeated-measures pretest-posttest control group design to gather longitudinal data about the trajec…
Bereavement and Spiritual Change
The thesis of this article is that bereavement is a life crisis that challenges one's assumptions about human existence and provides the grounds for spiritual change. Construing a new understanding of the meaning of human existence and revising assumptions about one's place in the universe is a singular form that indicates spiritual change at work. Three aspects must be present for a life crisis to produce spiritual change: The situation must cre…
College Student Bereavement, Scholarship, and the University
The prevalence of bereavement among traditional-aged college students should impel universities to assist bereaved students on their campuses. Dealing with bereavement can not only challenge a college student's completing the developmental tasks that our society sets for the later adolescent years, but also imperil the student's remaining in school and graduating. It is in the best interests of the university to develop and implement a variety of…
Hospice Care and the Bereavement Process in Two Countries
The authors examine the bereavement process within hospice programs in the United States and in the Netherlands. Topics covered include brief histories of hospice within each country, circumstances that constrain bereavement outcomes research, approaches to hospice bereavement services in each country including bereavement program protocols developed by the National Hospice Organization for programs in the United States, issues of bereavement car…
Recovery Following Bereavement
Herman Feifel noted that appropriate attention to one's mourning and grieving allowed the dead to die and the bereaved "to redefine and reintegrate oneself into life" (H. Feifel, 1977, p. 9). The author takes this central focus on bereavement outcomes as the springboard for an examination of the concept recovery following bereavement. He examines the meanings of the terms recover and bereavement and considers the centrality of concepts from life …
Scholarship, Students, and Practitioners
Increased attention is being given to bridging the gap separating thanatology researchers and practitioners. College undergraduates studying to be human service professionals represent a cohort with a significant stake in bridging this gap. Inculcating in college students expectations as well as expertise to use research as practitioners not only makes sense but also is an ethical obligation for college faculty. Two noteworthy models of academic …
Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in Bereavement
This article discusses issues in bridging the gap between research and practice in the field of bereavement. A conceptual framework is developed that emphasizes that the gulf reflects the lack of exchange and mutual influence between researchers and practitioners. Studies are presented using qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a better understanding of the nature of the gap between research and practice in bereavement. Finally recommenda…
Special Issue on Bereavement, Outcomes, and Recovery
A Lantern for a Dark Journey
A Modest Proposal About Bereavement and Recovery
The author argues that the term recovery aptly describes the trajectory following the bereavement of most persons. While the term resilience has gained ascendancy in the thanatology literature and the term recovery has been dismissed as inappropriate to denote responses over time to being bereaved, the irony is that all dictionaries of the English language, other than specialized dictionaries in such fields as psychology, define resilience as abi…
Psychology (36 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (30 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (22 works) · Medicine (20 works) · Psychotherapist (16 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Grief (14 works) · Clinical Psychology (11 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works)