Attachment, continuing bonds, and complicated grief following violent loss: testing a moderated model.
Abstract
There is increasing consensus that mourners' general attachment security and ongoing sense of connectedness to the deceased figure prominently in adjustment to bereavement. However, the interplay between these variables has not been investigated thoroughly. We therefore studied 195 young adults who were bereaved by violent causes (homicide, suicide, and fatal accidents) in the previous 2 years, measuring their attachment-related insecurities (anxiety and avoidance), their specific ongoing attachment or "continuing bond" (CB) to the deceased, and their complicated grief (CG) symptomatology over the loss of this relationship. Analyses indicated that CBs were concurrently linked with greater CG symptomatology. However, other results also suggested that attachment could moderate the adaptiveness of maintaining a sense of connection to the deceased loved one. Specifically, CBs were less predictive of CG symptomatology for individuals with high anxiety and low avoidance, and most predictive of intense grieving for bereaved people whose attachment styles were more highly avoidant and minimally anxious. These findings suggest the relevance of evaluating the appropriateness of clinical techniques that emphasize or deemphasize the CB for mourners who differ in their styles of attachment. Such studies could potentially promote a better match of interventions to clients whose styles of coping are congruent with these procedures.
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Meaning-making and bereavement occur within a collective, building coherence through individual and societal meanings.
“Though not a sociologist, Neimeyer and colleagues repeatedly find that meaning-making and bereavement always occur within the confines of a collective, as they build a coherent sense of why the death happened through each member’s individual meanings and more general societal ones (Neimeyer et al., 2006; Currier et al., 2015).”
From The Social Roots of Suicide: Theorizing How the External Social World Matters to Suicide and Suicide Prevention (2021) · cites this paper as Currier et al., 2015
Anxious attachment tendencies are associated with prolonged grief disorder.
“The emphasis placed on the role of fragmented attachments has been supported by many studies showing that anxious attachment tendencies are associated with prolonged grief disorder 71,72 .”
Grief can come with a strong desire to continue the bonds with the deceased.
“As several authors have attested, grief can come with a strong desire to continue the bonds with the deceased (Currier et al., 2015).”
From The assessment of grief in refugees and post-conflict survivors: a narrative review of etic and emic research (2018) · cites this paper as Currier et al., 2015
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BackgroundReed, G. M., First, M. B., Billieux, J., Cloitre, M., Briken, P., Achab, S., Brewin, C. R., King, D. L., Kraus, S. W., & Bryant, R. A. (2022) · World Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/wps.20960 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Currier, J. M., Irish, J. E. F., Neimeyer, R. A., & Foster, J. D.
- Affiliations
- University of South Alabama (US)
- Fuller Theological Seminary (US)
- University of Memphis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Currier, Joseph M.
- Venue
- Death Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-12-31
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 201-210
- ISSN
- 0748-1187 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-7683
- OpenAlex
- W2031667390
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Death Studies (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- complicated grief, continuing bonds, attachment security, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, homicide, suicide, fatal accidents, bereavement, young adults, moderated mediation, attachment styles, grief intervention
- MeSH terms
- Accidents, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Bereavement, Death, Escape Reaction, Female, Grief, Homicide, Humans, Male, Object Attachment, Prognosis, Psychological Techniques, Psychopathology, Social Adjustment, Suicide
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