Types of guilt that bereaved parents may experience include all of the following EXCEPT:

• A. Survival
• B. Separation
• C. Causal
• D. Moral

Answer: (B)

Guilt in bereavement often centers on responsibility and survival. Survival guilt arises when parents feel they should have died instead of their child or feel guilty for remaining alive. Causal guilt involves beliefs that something the parent did or didn’t do contributed to the death. Moral guilt goes deeper into the sense that they failed to meet personal or societal moral standards and could have prevented the loss. Separation, though a real part of the grieving process, describes feeling emotionally distant or detached rather than feeling responsible or blaming oneself for the death. Since guilt is about blame or responsibility, separation isn’t really a guilt type, making it the exception.