When Loss Lingers: Severity and Correlates of Prolonged Grief in Parents and their Children

Abstract

Grief is a natural experience after the loss of a loved one. When grief persists over time, it could develop into prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Prolonged grief disorder and its effects within families are severely under-researched as it was recently added to diagnostic manuals. This study aims to examine whether prolonged grief symptoms in parents are predictive of prolonged grief symptoms in their children. Furthermore, it was examined whether an unnatural (vs. natural) cause of death of the deceased predicted higher prolonged grief levels in children. For this study, cross-sectional online survey data were used, with a sample of 123 participants. Prolonged grief symptoms in parents and children were measured with the Traumatic Grief Inventory – Self Report Plus (TGI-SR+) and the Traumatic Grief Inventory – Kids – Clinician Administered (TGI-K-CA), respectively. Findings showed that higher prolonged grief symptom severity of parents predicted higher prolonged grief symptom severity in their children. Furthermore, results demonstrated that an unnatural cause of death was not a significant predictor of prolonged grief symptoms in children. Based on the results, it is concluded that it is important to further research risk factors of prolonged grief in children while shifting the focus of research from exclusively adults or children in isolation to families and their dynamics to get a more complete understanding of prolonged grief and its mechanisms