Emotional Sequelae of Parents and Sibs following the Drowning or Near-Drowning of a Child

Abstract

This study reports the findings from an investigation to evaluate the intra-family dynamics that occurred with 111 cases of childhood drowning and near-drowning in the City of Brisbane in 1971-1975. Personal interviews were obtained with 77 of the families. 24 per cent of parent-dyads separated following the drowning of their child, whereas none of the 54 families of surviving children separated. Accident generated stresses within the studied families tended to persist for years after the incident. Parents volunteered the information that they drank more, experienced sleep disorders and nightmares, and reported significant anxiety states. 19 per cent of parents of drowned children received specialist psychiatric treatment following the drowning. Two cases of surviving children received specialist psychiatric therapy (these were both parents who had inflicted non-accidental injury on their child, and had attempted to drown their child in the bath). In one sense, a child's death is more honourable from society's point of view if the child dies from a chronic medical illness such as leukaemia. In the case of a child's death in the family bath tub or the backyard swimming pool, the extra society sanctions of culpability and accusation further intensified the likelihood of the normal grief process being transformed into a pathological variant.