| dc.description.abstract | Background. A minority of those bereaved develops a set of dysfunctional grief symptoms,
referred to as Pathological Grief (PG). Two constructs, cause of death (natural versus unnatural)
and perceived unexpectedness of death, have been suggested to predict PG. However, no earlier
studies used clinical interviews in the assessment of PG. The aim of the current study was to
investigate the association between cause and perceived unexpectedness of death with PG
symptoms using clinical interviews, while controlling for background characteristics (gender,
educational level, time since loss and relationship to deceased). Methods. Participants (N = 248)
were interviewed by telephone. PG was assessed via the Traumatic Grief Inventory – Clinician
Administered (TGI-CA). Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results.
Background characteristics explained 24.8% of the variance in TGI-CA scores (p < .001), cause
of death explained an additional 3.8% (p < .001) in one analysis and perceived unexpectedness
of death an additional 2.3% (p < .01) in the other. Two post-hoc hierarchical regression analyses
showed 1) cause of death explained 2.7% (p = .003) of the variance in TGI-CA scores over and
above background characteristics and perceived unexpectedness, and 2) perceived
unexpectedness explained 1.2% (p = .048) of the variance in TGI-CA scores over and above
background characteristics and cause of death. Discussion. Findings provide support for both
cause and perceived unexpectedness of death as correlates of PG. Furthermore, cause of death
and perceived unexpectedness are found to both explain unique variances in PG symptoms,
independent of one another. | |
