Quran and Medicine

Quran and Medicine

Designing and validating a package of Islamic condolence rituals for mothers bereaved of a child with cancer

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 PhD student, Department of Consulting, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran.
4 Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran.
Abstract
The death of a child is the most difficult experience for a mother in life, and it has many psychological damages. Especially the death of a child due to cancer has its own difficulties. Because of the difficulty of this experience, mothers need consolation and comfort. But how to express condolences is very important. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to develop condolence rituals based on the lived experiences of bereaved mothers of cancer children. The current research was mixed and in the form of a mixed exploratory design and included qualitative and quantitative phenomenological methods. The sampling method was purposeful and with maximum difference. The number of sample people were 13 bereaved mothers due to the death of their child with cancer in Yazd city. The data collection method was semi-structured interview. After interviewing the participants and recording the interview, each of the recorded interviews was written down on paper and analyzed using the Collaizi method. 3 main themes and 16 secondary themes were obtained from the data analysis. The main themes were condolence focused on spirituality, condolence focused on effective emotion, and condolence not expressed. Using the obtained data, a package of grief counseling and condolence rituals with an Islamic approach was designed including ten sessions. Delphi technique was used to validate the designed package. Then, the collected responses were analyzed and quantified in the form of two indexes, the relative coefficient of content validity (CVR) and the content validity index (CVI). The minimum acceptable value for content validity was 0.79, which was obtained for validity sessions at 0.85. Also, the minimum relative content validity coefficient was 0.62, which was the minimum value obtained for the sessions of 0.67. The results showed the validity of the counseling package. These findings show that in condolence with bereaved mothers, etiquette should be observed that has a consoling function and does not lead to more harm and discomfort to the bereaved mother.
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