Abstract
Methods of obtaining representative and adequate sized samples from potentially high-risk bereaved persons have had limited discussion in the literature. This article describes a sampling strategy used to obtain bereaved respondents for a study designed to examine loss and coping responses following a recent natural disaster. Linked pairs of persons, that is, the selection of two bereaved participants for each deceased disaster victim lessened a potential sampling dilemma. However, it cannot be assumed that study questionnaire scores obtained from the linked pairs are indeed independent observations. The statistical analysis used to support the independence of scores between the pairs is delineated. Thus, the sampling procedure appeared not to produce an obvious bias and was very beneficial in meeting the research objectives.
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