Date of Award
Spring 5-23-2025
Document Type
Thesis (Undergraduate)
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Kathryn Lively
Second Advisor
Marc Dixon
Abstract
Grief and bereavement are under researched topics within Latino populations, and even more so among Latino college students. Much of the existing literature is also focused on quantitative studies that are said to provide higher quality evidence than qualitative studies, with very few being conducted on college campuses. Garcini et al published a systemic review in 2021 on bereavement among widowed Latinos in which most studies were conducted using quantitative methods. Further, only 4 of the 19 studies analyzed were based solely on Latino communities. Falzarano et al. also published a literature synthesis in 2022 which focused on the broader effects of grief and bereavement. They identify only one study targeted at Latino college students which found that they were more likely than White students to experience “increased physiological reactions to loss”. However, they acknowledge the glaring lack of literature and call for further research on 1. The intersection of grief and racial/ethnic identity and 2. The needs of these minority groups in terms of their social, cultural, and familial rituals and how the completion of these rituals impacts bereavement. Complicated grief is defined as long lasting grief that has negative impacts on behavior and mental health. Latino populations are often attributed to being predisposed to experience complicated grief due to culture, yet little research in this ethnic group results in a lack of evidence surrounding this theory. This is a qualitative research study on a small private liberal arts college in the Northeast centered on the Latino student population to gain insight on how the college environment impacts the grieving process. The study provides data on the importance of different types of intrapersonal and interpersonal support systems as well as a correlation between involuntary identity loss and complicated grief.
Recommended Citation
Velasco Gonzalez, Mark Jared, "Latinos and Complicated Grief: An Analysis on the Impacts of a College Campus on Grief and Bereavement" (2025). Sociology Undergraduate Senior Theses. 4.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/sociology_senior_theses/4
