Modification and Factor Analysis of the Grief Experience Inventory in Non-Death Loss/Bereavement Situations

Abstract

The Grief Experience Inventory (GEI), developed by Sanders, Mauger, and Strong in 1985, is a broad multidimensional measure of grief applicable to both death and non-death loss/bereavement situations. Further modification of the non-death GEI form was undertaken and employed in assessing grief reactions of mothers of brain-injured adolescents and young adults across three years, post-injury. Factor analysis of these data was computed and compared to factors derived from the original GEI General Reference Group. There were strikingly similar factor structures between the modified non-death form and the original GEI, affirming the rationale and method of inventory construction, and supporting the validity and strength of the GEI as a measure of grief in varied loss situations. Recommendations for future application are offered.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Zisook

, The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief, in Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement: Progress in Psychiatry, Zisook

(ed.), American Psychiatric Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 111–124, 1987.

Lindemann

, Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief, American Journal of Psychiatry, 101, pp. 141–148, 1944.

Parkes

C. M.

Benjamin

Fitzgerald

R. G.

, Broken Heart: A Statistical Study of Increased Mortality among Widowers, British Medical Journal, 1, pp. 740–743, 1969.

Zisook

, The Prediction of Outcome in Bereavement, in Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement: Progress in Psychiatry, Zisook

(ed.), American Psychiatric Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 97–108, 1987.

Kaltreider

N. B.

De Witt

K. N.

Weiss

D. S.

Horowitz

M. J.

, Patterns of Individual Change Scales, Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, pp. 1263–1269, 1981.

Horowitz

Wilner

Alvarez

, Impact of Events Scale: A Measure of Subjective Stress, Psychosomatic Medicine, 41, pp. 209–218, 1979.

Comstock

Helsing

, Symptoms of Depression in Two Communities, Psychological Medicine, 6, pp. 551–563, 1976.

Sanders

C. M.

Mauger

P. A.

Strong

P. N.

Jr. , A Manual for the Grief Experience Inventory, Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, California, 1985.

Jacobs

S. C.

, Measures of the Psychological Distress of Bereavement, in Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement: Progress in Psychiatry, Zisook

(ed.), American Psychiatric Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 125–138, 1987.

10.

Hathaway

S. R.

McKinley

J. C.

, The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Manual, (Revised), The Psychological Corporation, New York, 1951.

11.

Zinner

E. S.

, The Grief Reactions of Mothers of Brain-Injured Adolescents and Young Adults across Three Years Post-Injury, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Virginia Consortium for Professional Psychology, Norfolk/Williamsburg, 1989.

12.

Levin

H. S.

High

W. M.

Goethe

K. E.

Sisson

R. A.

Overall

J. E.

Rhoades

H. M.

Eisenberg

H. M.

Kalisky

Gary

J. E.

, The Neurobehavior Rating Scale: Assessment of Behavioral Sequelae of Head Injury by the Clinician, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 50, pp. 183–193, 1987.

13.

DeSpelder

L. A.

Strickland

A. L.

, The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying (2nd Edition), Mayfield Publishing, Palo Alto, California, 1987.

14.

Rando

T. A.

, Grief, Dying, and Death: Clinical Interventions for Caregivers, Research Press, Champaign, Illinois, 1984.

15.

Raphael

, The Anatomy of Bereavement, Basic Books, New York, 1983.

16.

Rubin

S. S.

, Death of the Future?: An Outcome Study of Bereaved Parents in Israel, Omega, 20:4, pp. 323–329, 1989–1990.