The Relationship of Cause of Death to Attitudes Toward Funerals and Bereavement Adjustment

Abstract

Four hundred and thirty-eight adults aged eighteen to eighty-eight (M age = 35) who had lost a close friend or family member within the last two years completed questionnaires to ascertain the relationship of cause of death to attitudes toward the funeral and bereavement adjustment. While deaths that were expected were associated with more adaptive bereavement adjustment, cause of death was independent of participation in prefuneral, funeral, and postfuneral rituals, as well as attitudes toward the funeral. Expected deaths of persons to whom bereaved persons felt emotionally close were linked to more adaptive bereavement adjustment, greater positive meaning attributed to the funeral, and somewhat greater postfuneral participation. Such effects were minimized when data for deceased persons to whom the bereaved felt less close were examined. When specific causes of death were examined, those losing a loved one to either murder/suicide or accident fared worse regarding bereavement adjustment, and had less funeral participation. Regarding bereavement adjustment, this was especially the case when the deaths of close family were considered, except that such persons had greater funeral participation. Neither length of time since bereavement nor age interacted with cause of death to affect funeral attitudes or bereavement adjustment. While these data partially support the hypothesis that the impact of funerals is relative to the nature of loss, they also suggest that cause of death interacts with closeness to the deceased in affecting bereavement adjustment.