Avoidance of Bereavement-Related Stimuli in Chinese Individuals Experiencing Prolonged Grief: Evidence from a Dot-Probe Task
Open accessAbstract
Background. Attentional bias refers to a preference for (e.g., vigilance) or a shifting away (e.g., avoidance) of one’s focus with respect to specific stimuli. Accumulating evidence suggests that an attentional bias towards death/threat-related stimuli exists in bereaved individuals experiencing prolonged grief (PG). Measuring for different processing may reflect different cognitive characteristics. Therefore, this study sought to compare information-processing biases in Chinese individuals with high versus low levels of PG symptomatology at supraliminal and subliminal levels, respectively. Method. A 2 (grief level) × 2 (consciousness level) × 2 (word type) three-factor mixed design with supraliminal and subliminal tasks was utilized in the current study. Based on their Prolonged Grief Questionnaire-13 (PG-13) scores, 38 participants were included in the low-PG group, and 34 individuals were included in the high-PG group. All the participants completed a dot-probe task in which they were primed with death-related and life-related words paired with neutral stimuli. Results. High-PG individuals were slower in reacting to the death-related information in both supraliminal and subliminal tasks. After controlling for other symptoms in the backwards deletion regression, PG-13 scores significantly predicted the avoidance tendency to death-related words in the supraliminal task, while anxiety was the best predictor of turning one’s vision away from death-related stimuli in the subliminal trials. Conclusions. The results suggested that high PG is associated with a tendency to avoid death-related words. Future research is needed to explore interventions that address the avoidance of death-related stimuli among individuals with elevated, or diagnosable, levels of PG.
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Other studies suggest that individuals with prolonged grief disorder avoid reminders of the deceased.
“Other studies suggest these individuals avoid reminders of the deceased 106,107 .”
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References 60 · Cited by 15
Research works printed but not linked: 4
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- Authors
- Yu, M., Tang, S., Wang, C., Xiang, Z., Yu, W., Xu, W., Wang, J., & Prigerson, H. G.
- Affiliations
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Capital Medical University (CN)
- Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Jianping
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2017-07-17
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 1201-1201
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5511967
- OpenAlex
- W2735829295
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (R35CA197730)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Keywords
- prolonged grief disorder, bereavement, attentional avoidance, attentional bias, subliminal processing, anxiety, Chinese adults
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