"I still hope, but what I hope for now has changed": A narrative inquiry study of hope and ambiguous loss when someone is missing

Abstract

More than 35000 Australians are reported missed each year. National data identifies that the incidence of people going missing, and of those who remain missing long-term (more than six months), are increasing. When a person is missing, the impact on the emotional wellbeing of those left behind is profound. There is a dearth of international research examining the experience of long-term loss when a person is missing. Further, limited research exists on the social constructs of what such loss means and how it is experienced. Limited prior literature reports that loss for those left behind is both ambiguous and unresolved. Hope is a persistent inclusion in the narratives of those describing their experience of missing someone, yet the role of hope has not been explored. This study examines the broader experience of what it means for families of missing people to hope. This project was grounded in a narrative inquiry framework bound to a reflexive praxis. Stories of hope and loss were shared by 19 family members of missing people with experiences post-missing stretching from 9 months to 34 years, which reflected on the time since the missing person vanished.