Representations of African Americans in the Grief and Mourning Literature from 1998 to 2014: A Systematic Review

Death Stud. 2015;39(10):605-32. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2015.1047059. Epub 2015 May 27.

Abstract

The authors examined representations of African Americans in the grief literature to assess (a) frequencies; (b) content; and (c) use of universalist or a contextualized framework. They conducted searches in 3 databases that target the grief literature published in the last 15 years. Fifty-nine articles met the criteria. There are a small number of studies published on African Americans and these tend to focus on homicide. Many studies had incomplete methods. Comparison studies were common and pathological grief outcomes that were validated on White populations were used as outcome variables with African American participants.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Bibliometrics*
  • Black or African American / psychology
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
  • Grief*
  • Humans