Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Publication Title
Family Transitions
Keywords
grief intensity, fathers, miscarriage, ostracism, posttraumatic stress, trauma
Abstract
Miscarriage can be a traumatic experience with serious mental health implications for parents. However, fathers’ experiences and outcomes post-miscarriage are understudied compared to those of mothers. Previous research focused on mothers’ experiences found that perceived ostracism correlated with grief intensity and posttraumatic stress symptoms, predicting unique variance in symptoms beyond grief intensity factors. We replicate several of these research findings in a sample of fathers and demonstrate that their perceived ostracism correlated positively with posttraumatic stress symptoms and negatively with grief reality (i.e. the pregnancy did not feel real to them). Perceived ostracism also explained additional variance in posttraumatic stress symptoms when considered alongside grief intensity measures that typically predict traumatic symptoms.
Funding Source
This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.
Recommended Citation
Wesselmann, E. D., Arellanes, J. A., & Parris, L. (2025). Perceived Ostracism and Fathers’ Experiences of Grief and Trauma After Miscarriage. Family Transitions, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/28375300.2025.2499336
DOI
10.1080/28375300.2025.2499336
Comments
First published in Family Transitions (2025): https://doi.org/10.1080/28375300.2025.2499336
Data available at https://osf.io/ae6ms/
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.