Prospective risk factors for intense grief in family members of veterans who died of terminal illness
Abstract
Many bereavement researchers focus on predicting and preventing complicated grief, a psychologically crippling, sometimes life-threatening response to loss that persists for lengthy periods, often with serious health consequences. Reviews of studies have identified specific risk factors (e.g., low social support, insecure attachment style) that predict high levels of complicated grief symptomatology. However, studies rarely investigate multiple risk factors in combination, and still more rarely trace factors observable during the end-of-life period and their predictive power for identifying intense grief in family members following the death. We therefore investigated several pre-loss risk factors for post-loss bereavement distress in 35 family members of Veterans who died of a terminal illness after receiving palliative care. Results revealed that being female, Caucasian, losing a spouse, and experiencing high anticipatory grief prior to the death, all predicted high levels of grief 6 to 10 weeks following the death. Moreover, psychosocial factors such as being highly dependent upon the Veteran, displaying high neuroticism, reporting low levels of social support, and being unable to make sense of the prognosis or death predicted more intense post-loss grief reactions.
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Meaning reconstruction in bereavement: Development of a research program
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Burke, L. A., Neimeyer, R. A., Bottomley, J. S., & Smigelsky, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Memphis VA Medical Center (US)
- University of Memphis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Burke, Laurie A.
- Venue
- Illness, Crisis & Loss
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-03-28
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 147-171
- ISSN
- 1054-1373 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6968
- OpenAlex
- W2599874543
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Illness Crisis & Loss (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- University of Memphis
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
- Keywords
- complicated grief, bereavement, veterans, terminal illness, palliative care, anticipatory grief, family members, risk factors, social support, neuroticism, attachment styles, dependent relationships, death of a spouse, prognosis understanding, end-of-life care
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