FAMILY DISTANCING FOLLOWING A FATAL FARM ACCIDENT

Interviews in twenty-one farm families following a fatal accident iden tified factors involved in bereaved family members becoming more dista nt from one another. This article explores five of the distancing fact ors: 1) How blaming and fear of blame can produce distancing; 2) How t he economic crisis that exists for a farm family when the farm operato r is killed produces family distance, particularly intergenerationally ; 3) The distancing effects of family differences over the expression of feelings; 4) The distancing effects of the preoccupation and emotio nal flatness of bereavement; and 5) The role of kinship beliefs and at titudes in producing distance among bereaved in-laws.