Content area
Full Text
This study investigated the relationships among emotional distress, grief, and family hardiness in adult children of missing in action (MIA) fathers using the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in telephone interviews of twenty adult children. Results indicated that 25 years after notification of their father's MIA status, participants still had unresolved grief. Findings provide some support for family hardiness as a strength that facilitated family bonadaptation.
Key Words: ambiguous loss, Brief, parental loss, resilience, stress, Vietnam War.
Adult Children of Fathers Missing in Action (MIA): An Examination of Emotional Distress, Grief, and Family Hardiness*
When the Vietnam War ended militarily in 1973, there were 2,453 men listed as missing in action (MIA) (Doyle, 1992). "A military service member is in a missing (missing in action) status if not at his duty location due to apparent involuntary reasons as a result of hostile action and his location is not known" (Department of Defense POW/MIA Newsletter, 1996, p. 5). Three criteria currently guide accounting for missing personnel by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office: (1) the return of a live American; (2) the return of identifiable remains; and (3) provision of convincing evidence why the first two criteria are not possible (personal communication, June 19, 1998). In 1998 the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia reported 2,089 men remain still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War: 1,559 in Vietnam (North, 566; South, 993); 447 in Laos; 75 in Cambodia; and 8 in Peoples Republic of China territorial waters. The MIA issue fueled intense political debates in the United States government and sparked dramatic stories in the Hollywood film industry (Leonard, 1993).
Experiencing the loss of a loved one during the Vietnam War was difficult for all families. Impact of war challenged a family system to regain its normal functioning (Hogancamp & Figley, 1983). Many families continue to wrestle with resolution of losses that occurred during the Vietnam War (Berkseth, 1988). Circumstances of the death, the lack of concrete evidence, the inadequate support available, and the conflicted social environment associated with the Vietnam War contributed to family dif ficulty in resolving the loss (Provost, 1989). Families of those...