This research focuses on social and cultural determinants of grief processing among bereaved parents and spouses in the United States and China. Bereaved participants in both countries responded to a brief questionnaire, at 4 months and 18 months post loss, regarding four grief-processing behaviors (thinking about the deceased, searching for meaning in the loss, positive memories about the deceased, and avoiding thinking about the deceased) within three social contexts (family, friends, alone). As predicted, participants reported significantly less frequent grief processing with friends than with family or while alone, with a more pronounced difference at the second wave of data collection. Interactions of culture and lost relationship type were also observed. Implications for the understanding of grief processing and future research on bereavement are discussed.
Ahern, E.M. (1973). The cult of the dead in a Chinese village. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Archer, J. (1999). The nature of grief: The evolution and psychology of reactions to loss. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
3.
Bonanno, G.A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?American Psychologist, 59, 20—28.
4.
Bonanno, G.A. (2005). Resilience in the face of loss and potential trauma . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 135—138.
5.
Bonanno, G.A., & Kaltman, S. (1999). Toward an integrative perspective on bereavement . Psychological Bulletin,125, 760—776.
6.
Bonanno, G.A., & Keltner, D. (1997). Facial expressions of emotion and the course of conjugal bereavement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 126—137.
7.
Bonanno, G.A., Papa, A., & Lalande, K. (2001). Loss and human resilience. Applied & Preventive Psychology, 10, 193—206.
8.
Bonanno, G.A., Papa, A., Lalande, K., Zhang, N., & Noll, J.G. (2005). Grief processing and deliberate grief avoidance: A prospective comparison of bereaved spouses and parents in the United States and China. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 86—98.
9.
Bonanno, G.A., Wortman, C.B., & Nesse, R.M. (2004). Prospective patterns of resilience and maladjustment during widowhood. Psychology & Aging, 19, 260—271.
10.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Loss: Sadness and depression ( Attachment and Loss, Vol. 3). New York: Basic Books.
11.
Caserta, M.S., Lund, D.A., & Dimond, M.F. (1985). Assessing interviewer effects in a longitudinal study of bereaved elderly adults. Journal of Gerontology, 40, 637—640.
12.
Davidson, J. D., & Doka, K. J. (Eds.). (1999). Living with grief: At work, at school, at worship. Levittown, PA: Taylor & Francis.
13.
Davis, C.G., Wortman, C.B., Lehman, D.R., & Silver, R.C. (2000). Searching for meaning in loss: Are clinical assumptions correct?Death Studies, 24, 497—540.
14.
Fleming, S.J., Balmer, L., Hall, M.N., & Rappe, P.T. (1995). Social support for survivors. In L. A. DeSpelder & A. L. Strickland (Eds.), The path ahead: Readings in death and dying (pp. 281—294). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
15.
Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 14 (pp. 152—170). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1957)
16.
Ikels, C. (1996). The return of the god of wealth. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Klass, D. (1988). Parental grief: Solace and resolution. New York: Springer.
19.
Klass, D. (1999). Developing a cross-cultural model of grief: The state of the field. Omega, 39, 153—178.
20.
Mancini, A.D., Pressman, D.L., & Bonanno, G.A. (2005). Clinical interventions with the bereaved: What clinicians and counselors can learn from the CLOC study. In D. Carr, R. M. Nesse, & C. B. Wortman (Eds.), Late life widowhood: New directions in theory, research, and practice (pp. 255—278). New York: Springer.
21.
Mitchell, S.A. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis: An integration . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
Moos, R.H. (2003). Social contexts: Transcending their power and their fragility. American Journal of Community Psychology , 31, 1—13.
23.
Murphy, S.L., Johnson, L.C., & Lohan, J. (2002). The aftermath of the violent death of a child: An integration of the assessments of parents' mental distress and PTSD during the first 5 years of bereavement. Journal of Loss andTrauma , 7, 203—222.
24.
Parkes, C.M., & Weiss, R.S. (1983). Recovery from bereavement. New York: Basic Books.
25.
Rime, B., Mesquita, B., Philippot, P., & Boca, S. (1991). Beyond the emotional events: Six studies on the social sharing of emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 5, 435—465.
26.
Rosenblatt, P.C. (2001). A social constructionist perspective on cultural differences in grief. In M. S. Stroebe & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping, and care (pp. 285—300). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association .
27.
Rubin, S.S. (1999). The two-track model of bereavement: Overview, retrospect, prospect. Death Studies, 23, 681—714.
28.
Rubin, S.S., & Malkinson, R. (2001). Parental response to child loss across the life cycle: Clinical and research perspectives. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping, and care (pp. 219—240). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
29.
Russac, R.J., Steighner, N.S., & Canto, A.I. (2002). Grief work versus continuing bonds: A call for paradigm integration or replacement?Death Studies, 26, 463—478.
30.
Sanders, C. (1992). How to survive the loss of a child. Rocklin, CA: Prima.
31.
Stone, A.A., Schwartz, J.E., Neale, J.M., Shiffman, S., Marco, C.A., Hickcox, M., et al. (1998). A comparison of coping assessed by ecological momentary assessment and retrospective recall. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1670—1680.
32.
Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (1999). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23, 197—224.
33.
Stroebe, M., & Stroebe, W. (1991). Does “grief work” work?Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 479—482.
34.
Stroebe, M., Stroebe, W., Schut, H., Zech, E., & van den Bout, J. (2002). Does disclosure of emotions facilitate recovery from bereavement? Evidence from two prospective studies . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 169—178.
35.
Stroebe, W., & Stroebe, M.S. (1987). Bereavement and health. New York: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Stroebe, W., & Stroebe, M.S. (1993). Determinants of adjustment to bereavement in younger widows and widowers. In M. S. Stroebe, W. Stroebe, & R. O. Hansson (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement (pp. 208—226). New York: Cambridge University Press.
37.
Stroebe, W., Stroebe, M., Abakoumkin, G., & Schut, H. (1996). The role of loneliness and social support in adjustment to loss: a test of attachment versus stress theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1241—1249.
38.
Whyte, M.K. (1988). Death in the People's Republic of China. In J. L. Watson & E. S. Rawski (Eds.), Death ritual in late imperial and modern China (pp. 298—316). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
39.
Wortman, C.B., & Silver, R.C. (1989). The myths of coping with loss. Journal of Clinical and ConsultingPsychology, 57, 349.
