The World Assumptions Scale and the Revised Grief Experience Inventory was administered to parents of murdered children and parents bereaved by sudden accidental death. Compared to parents bereaved by accidents, parents bereaved by homicide showed more negative views of the benevolence of the world, but no difference with regard to meaningfulness of the world or worthiness of the self. For both groups, worthiness of self was less affected by trauma than was either benevolence or meaningfulness of the world. Also, as hypothesized, assumptive world views were found to be predictive of grief intensity, along with gender and time since death. Clinical implications of these findings were discussed.
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