Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Previous research has paid little attention to the role of kinship in understanding the specific profiles of complicated grief (CG) reactions. To address this underinvestigated topic, the Inventory of Complicated Grief was used in five groups of bereaved participants (N = 1,105) that differed in their family relationship with the deceased (child, spouse/romantic partner, sibling, parent, and grandparent). Results identified kinship relationship as the variable that predicted the highest amount of variance in the intensity of CG (standardized β = –.55), above other predictors such as gender, time since loss, or circumstances of death. More important, distinct profiles of CG reactions were found depending on kinship. These results highlight kinship as a major predictor of CG and open a new line of research that serves to clarify the role of kinship along with other risk factors.

Keywords

complicated grief kinship meaning making family relationships

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Archer

(2008). Theories of grief: Past, present, and future perspectives. In Stroebe

M. S.

Hansson

R. O.

Schut

H. E.

Stroebe

W. E.

Van den Blink

E. I.

(Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and intervention (pp. 45–66). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Cacciatore

Erlandsson

Radestad

(2013). Fatherhood and suffering: A qualitative exploration of Swedish men’s experiences of care after the death of a baby. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 50, 664–670. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.10.014

Castelnovo

Cavallotti

Gambini

Agostino

A. D.

(2015). Post-bereavement hallucinatory experiences : A critical overview of population and clinical studies. Journal of Affective Disorders, 186, 266–274. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.07.032

Delespaux

Ryckebosch-Dayez

A. S.

Heeren

Zech

(2013). Attachment and severity of grief: The mediating role of negative appraisal and inflexible coping. Omega-Journal of Death and Dying, 67, 269–289. doi:10.2190/OM.67.3.b

Esmaeilpour

Bakhshalizadeh Moradi

(2015). The severity of grief reactions following death of first-grade relatives. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, 20, 363–371

Fernández-Alcántara

Pérez-Marfil

M. N.

Catena-Martínez

Pérez-García

Cruz-Quintana

(2016). Influence of emotional psychopathology and type of loss in the intensity of grief. Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología y Salud, 7, 15–24. doi:10.1016/j.rips.2015.10.002

Gillies

Neimeyer

R. A.

(2006). Loss, grief, and the search for significance: Toward a model of meaning reconstruction in bereavement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 19, 31–65. doi:10.1080/10720530500311182

Kersting

Brähler

Glaesmer

Wagner

(2011). Prevalence of complicated grief in a representative population-based sample. Journal of Affective Disorders, 131, 339–343. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.11.032

10.

Kosminsky

P. S.

Jordan

J. R.

(2016). Attachment-informed grief therapy: A clinician’s guide to foundations and applications. New York, NY: Routledge.

11.

Leahy

(1992–1993). A comparison of depression in women bereaved of spouse, child, or parent. Omega, 26, 207–217. doi:10.1017/S000748530002229X

12.

Maccallum

Bryant

R. A.

(2013). A cognitive attachment model of prolonged grief: Integrating attachments, memory, and identity. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 713–727. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.05.001

13.

Maciejewski

P. K.

Maercker

Boelen

P. A.

Prigerson

H. G.

(2016). “Prolonged grief disorder” and “persistent complex bereavement disorder,” but not “complicated grief,” are one and the same diagnostic entity: An analysis of data from the Yale Bereavement Study. World Psychiatry, 15, 266–275. doi:10.1002/wps.20348

14.

Moors

Ellsworth

P. C.

Scherer

K. R.

Frijda

N. H.

(2013). Appraisal theories of emotion: State of the art and future development. Emotion Review, 5, 119–124. doi:10.1177/1754073912468165

15.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(2010). Mplus user’s guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

16.

Neimeyer

R. A.

Klass

Dennis

M. R.

(2014). A social constructionist account of grief: Loss and the narration of meaning. Death Studies, 38, 485–498. doi:10.1080/07481187.2014.913454

17.

Neria

Gross

Litz

Maguen

Insel

Seirmarco

. . . Marshall

R. D.

(2007). Prevalence and psychological correlates of complicated grief among bereaved adults 2.5–3.5 years after September 11th attacks. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20, 251–262. doi:10.1002/jts.20223

18.

Prigerson

H. G.

Horowitz

M. J.

Jacobs

S. C.

Parkes

C. M.

Aslan

Goodkin

. . . Maciejewski

P. K.

(2009). Prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric validation of criteria proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11. PLOS Medicine, 6(8), e1000121. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000121

19.

Prigerson

H. G.

Maciejewski

P. K.

Reynolds

C. F.

Bierhals

A. J.

Newsom

J. T.

Fasiczka

. . . Miller

(1995). Inventory of Complicated Grief: A scale to measure maladaptive symptoms of loss. Psychiatry Research, 59, 65–79.

20.

Sanders

C. M.

(1980). A comparison of adult bereavement in the death of a spouse, child, and parent. Omega—Journal of Death and Dying, 10, 303–322.

21.

Simon

N. M.

Wall

M. M.

Keshaviah

Dryman

M. T.

Leblanc

N. J.

Shear

M. K.

(2011). Informing the symptom profile of complicated grief. Depression and Anxiety, 28, 118–126. doi:10.1002/da.20775

22.

Stroebe

M. S.

Hansson

R. O.

Schut

H. E.

Stroebe

W. E.

(2008). Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

23.

Stroebe

Schut

(2015). Family matters in bereavement: Toward an integrative intra-interpersonal coping model. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10, 873–879. doi:10.1177/1745691615598517

24.

Stroebe

van Son

Stroebe

Kleber

Schut

van den Bout

(2000). On the classification and diagnosis of pathological grief. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 57–75. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00089-0

25.

Zech

(2006). Psychologie du deuil: Impact et processus d’adaptation au décès d’un proche [Psychology of grief: Impact and adjustment processes to the death of a loved one]. Hayden, Belgium: Mardaga.

26.

Zetumer

Young

Shear

M. K.

Skritskaya

Lebowitz

Simon

. . . Zisook

(2015). The impact of losing a child on the clinical presentation of complicated grief. Journal of Affective Disorders, 170, 15–21. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.08.021

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.27 MB

One or Multiple Complicated Grief(s)? The Role of Kinship on Grief Reactions

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material