Investigating the Complexities of Bereavement: Examining the Effect of Loss Type and Expectedness of Loss on PTSD and PGD Symptoms

Abstract

Bereavement, a natural but an impactful aspect of life, can lead to disorders such as Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Using data from the Measurement Archive of Reactions to Bereavement from Longitudinal European Studies (MARBLES), with 7000 participants. This study used six datasets encompassing several different measures of PGD and PTSD to investigate (1) how the cause of death—natural, homicide, suicide, or accidents—affects the variance in levels of PTSD and PGD, and (2) what is the additional impact of expectedness on PTSD and PGD symptom severity. Results indicated that cause of death was associated with 22.3% of the variance in PTSD symptoms and 7.6% of the variance in PGD symptoms (n1= 3477). Furthermore, homicide survivors exhibit significantly higher levels of both PGD and PTSD symptoms compared to other causes, no other groups showed significant differences. Further analysis for the second aim (n2 = 433) found that the cause of death alone explained 4.5% of the variance in PTSD and 2.7% of the variance in PGD, which increased significantly to 5.4% for PTSD and 6.2% for PGD with the inclusion of the death's expectedness, however no interaction effect was found. This study emphasizes the role of the cause of the death, specifically distinguishing homicide from other causes of death since this group showed significantly higher levels of PTSD and PGD, as well as the effect of considering the expectedness of the loss for improved understanding of grief-related disorders and interventions