La résilience des familles endeuillées par le suicide d'un adolescent : émerger malgré la blessure indélébile
The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the resilience of families bereaved by a teenager’s suicide. The suicide of an adolescent is a violent, unexpected, self-inflicted death that falls outside the normal order of life and the crisis faced by the family requires the mobilization of most of its energy. Despite this ordeal, the fact remains that most families continue to function.  The concept of family resilience, which refers to a family’s ability to bounce back from a crisis situation, may explain this phenomenon. Thus, to understand the resilience process which families go through following a teenager’s suicide, a grounded theory research inspired by the Straussian vision has been conducted. The McGill nursing model served as the theoretical background because of its focus on the family, its belief in the strengths of the family and the important collaborative role played by nurses. Theoretical sampling was progressively constructed from data through interviews (13) with members of seven families met either individually, in couples or as a group (n= 17 participants).; a socio-demographic questionnaire; personal documentation submitted by the participants (diary, homily ...); and field notes.. A constant comparative analysis of the data across triple coding allowed us to propose a theory of the family resilience process following the suicide of a teenager. The main results indicate that, initially, the family faces a cataclysm caused by the suicide itself and influenced by the family background, social context and emotions experienced. This cataclysm is followed by a sinking period which is more or less important given the lifebuoys present within and around the family. The presence of these intra and extra familial buoys allows the family to rebound more or less rapidly.. Subsequently, various actions within and outside the family enable it to emerge despite this indelible wound that is to say, to learn and grow through this experience. The analysis also identified four types of family resilience depending on whether the rebound is fast or late and  the emergence is continuous or not : the resilience process of the energetic families, centrifugal and centripetal, the stunned family, the combative family and the tenacious family. This study provides an in-depth  understanding of the experiences of families bereaved by the suicide of an adolescent and directions for health professionals to better tailor their interventions to the needs of these families, their lifebuoys and actions to support their emergence.
Étude qualitative Family resiliency Bereavement Adolescent suicide Nursing Qualitative study Grounded theory