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The researchers adopted relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) to examine the discourse of 37 bereaved parents. Research questions guiding the study were what dialectical contradictions do bereaved parents experience when communicating with their marital partner after their child's death and how do bereaved parents and their marital partners communicatively negotiate the dialectical contradictions they experience? Our analysis revealed that bereaved parents experienced a dialectical contradiction between trying to grieve their child's death together as a couple and apart as individuals. Likewise, parents experienced a contradiction between being both open and closed when talking with one another about their child's death. Results describe how parents negotiated these contradictions, and implications for professionals are discussed. (Contains 1 note.)

Given the probability that the death of a family member will occur before a child has reached adulthood, the purpose of this project was to understand what motivates parents to either talk or not talk about a loved one's death with their children. Using Communication Privacy Management to inductively analyze interviews, we found parents were motivated to talk to their children about death because they wanted their children to be informed. This is reflected in the first primary theme,Recalibrating Family of Origin Privacy Orientation Rules: Motivations for Revealing.Two secondary themes further explained parents' motivations to reveal:death as a part of lifeandmodeling grief. Even though parents wanted to inform their children, they also wanted to protect their children and this protection is demonstrated in the second primary theme,Protecting Children: Motivations for Balancing Revealing/Concealingas well as the secondary themes ofselective honesty as a rule regulatorandreligion as a reference point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]