Date

4-18-2025

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Jerra Dooley

Keywords

Unsolved murder, grief, attachment theory, attachment to God, spirituality, resilience, sudden loss, homicide survivors

Disciplines

Counseling | Psychology

Abstract

The quantitative study examined the influence of spirituality and spiritual bypass on the resilience of homicide survivors, an area with limited research. This correlational design used multiple regression analysis to investigate how spirituality and case solution status moderated the effects of spiritual bypass on the resilience of homicide survivors. While substantial studies address grief from natural and sudden loss, there have been few that explore the experiences of homicide survivors grieving loss due to murder. It was the researcher’s anticipation that there would be a positive effect between spirituality and resilience in addition to the negative effect on resilience from spiritual bypass; however, anxiety was the sole predictor of a decrease in resilience in survivors of homicide. Data was obtained from 93 participants who met the study inclusion criteria. Criteria included all of whom were age 18 and up, lived in the U.S., experienced some spiritual belief, and had experienced loss due to murder. A website was launched to administer surveys, which included qualifying questions, demographic questions (featuring one case solution question), and three scales: the AGI (with subscales for anxiety and avoidance), the CD-RISC, and the SBS-13. Results: Data was obtained from 93 individuals who participated. A statistically significant relationship was found between anxiety and lower resilience. However, avoidance, spiritual bypass, and case solution did not significantly moderate resilience in homicide survivors.

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