Answered By: Karen Briere
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024     Views: 6

You could start with the catalog and do a keyword search, using terms like:

stillbirth

death of a child

marital relationship

parents

couples

I tried "stillbirth and marriage" and one of the articles I found was " Stillbirth and the Couple: A Gender-Based Exploration". That might be one example of many. 

If you'd like to look somewhere more specific than the catalog, I would suggest:

Start from the A-Z list of databases. and I clicked on the PsycArticles database and found the item listed below. I used the Literature Resource Center databases also and found some literary criticism that will also help you.

The main strategy you'll want to use going forward is having a LOT of keywords to describe the topic and what you hope to find. For instance, you know the story, you know why the couple is grieving...they've lost their baby. So what keywords could we use to find research studies that will talk about this topic plus the additional topic of how it affects marriage? Keywords you could choose from to make different combinations...pick one word from each category and put them together with AND:

WHAT category: infant death, stillborn, child loss, perinatal death

WHO category: parents, couples, marriage, spouses, husbands, wives

I did a fancy kind of nested multi-search to tell the database to be open to a variety of keywords all at once from my WHAT and WHO category:

(perinatal death or child loss or stillborn) and (marriage* or spous* or couple*)

So now you'll need to skim and scan the intros, background, results, and conclusion sections of these articles to try and match up what you want to say with the research that's out there. We know from the story what the couple's symptoms are, that they are both grieving and have kinda let themselves go, avoidance behaviors, etc.

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