Establishing context surrounding ambiguous loss and childhood trauma: How are adults with childhood trauma coping?

Abstract

Childhood trauma can contribute to the experience of ambiguous loss, which is a relational and unclear loss that can create long lasting impacts to one’s well-being. The first paper within this dissertation presents a conceptual integration of ambiguous loss literature within the context of adverse childhood events (ACEs). This paper also conceptualizes an intergration of forgiveness research, specifically proposing a situational forgiveness therapy approach. This framework emphasizes forgiving the circumstances of their childhood as opposed to the individuals by guiding clients through the four adapted phases of the Enright and Fitzgibbens (2011) model. The second paper presents an empirical study which examines ambiguous loss, forgiveness, and mental health outcomes within a sample of 121 adults who have reported experiencing four or more ACEs. Results of this study indicated that ambiguous loss did not significantly predict psychological well-being or psychological distress when controlling for ACEs. However, situational forgiveness emerged as a significant predictor for both of these mental health outcomes. In totality, these two papers underline the clinical importance of situational forgiveness within the context of childhood trauma. Research should continue to examine the impact of ambiguous loss on those who have experienced childhood trauma, as well as continue to develop interventions that incorporate situational forgiveness.