Search Results (8)

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the experience of loss and mourning, potentially increasing distress among bereaved individuals. This study aimed to assess this experience and examine the role of spirituality and religiosity in this context. Using a mixed-methods, cross-sectional design, this research employed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG), the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, the Burdened by Grief and Loss (BGL) scale, and an open-ended question regarding what participants found helpful in their grieving process. Of the 323 responses eligible for quantitative analysis, 225 participants responded to the open-ended question. Notably, 36.84% of the sample scored above 25 on the ICG, indicating significant grief-related distress. Quantitative findings revealed that individuals with spiritual engagement (religious or not) reported lower levels of grief and higher general well-being scores. Qualitative analysis of the open responses highlighted spirituality as the most prominent source of support in coping with grief during the pandemic. Given Brazil’s high mortality rate, a substantial number of people may be experiencing complications in their grieving processes. Healthcare professionals and spiritual/religious care providers should be equipped to offer appropriate support and foster interdisciplinary dialog to assist those bereaved effectively. Full article

Background: Induced after-death communication (IADC) therapy is an emerging approach for addressing grief-related distress, particularly in individuals experiencing complicated grief (CG). Developed from eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), IADC therapy aims to change the meanings with which loss is read and to transform acute grief into integrated grief. While spontaneous after-death communications (ADCs) have been widely reported across different cultures, IADC therapy provides a structured procedure for inducing a state of mind in which such experiences can spontaneously arise and develop. Methods: This study employed a prospective observational cohort design with a retrospective analysis, comparing the effectiveness of IADC therapy (experimental group, n = 42) to standard grief interventions combining talk therapy and EMDR (control group, n = 43). Participants completed standardized measures, including the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) and the IADC Grief Questionnaire (IADC-GQ), at pre-treatment (T1), post-treatment (T2), and six-month follow-up (T3). Additional analyses explored the role of spirituality, religious affiliation, and therapist characteristics in grief processing. Results: IADC therapy led to a significantly greater reduction in grief intensity (ICG scores) immediately after the intervention and at the six-month follow-up compared to the control group. The experimental group also showed a more pronounced decrease in distress symptoms (CS scores) and higher ratings of therapeutic satisfaction. Furthermore, participants in the experimental group exhibited a significantly greater increase in their continuing bond (CB) scores, suggesting a more adaptive connection with the deceased. Additional analyses examined therapist characteristics, treatment-related factors, and the nature of ADC experiences, which are further explored in the discussion. Conclusions: These findings highlight the clinical utility of IADC therapy as a brief and cost-effective grief intervention, offering comparable or superior outcomes to traditional grief therapies. The results suggest that recognizing and integrating spontaneous ADC experiences into grief therapy may provide a valuable therapeutic pathway. Future research should further explore the long-term effects, cultural variations, and therapist characteristics to optimize the integration of IADC therapy into mainstream clinical practice. Full article

Losing a child is a traumatic event, disrupting life’s natural cycle, profoundly affecting the family system, and causing enduring grief. Perinatal death, including ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths, exacerbates this distress. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged healthcare systems and supporting services available to individuals in need. Thus, this research explores experiences of parents facing perinatal loss in 2020–2021, further focusing on the pandemic’s impact. Using a mixed-methods design with self-reports and qualitative interviews, this paper presents results from the quantitative protocol, involving an update and follow-up of a previous study. It compares measurements across scales: COVID-19: The Impact of Event Scale-Revised; The Prolonged Grief-13; The Parental Assessment of Paternal/Maternal Affectivity; The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (short version); The Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale; and The Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief. In the baseline measurement, 45 parents participated (37 mothers and 8 fathers), with 20 (13 mothers and 7 fathers) contributing to the follow-up and 9 engaging in interviews. Baseline results showed higher scores for mothers compared to fathers, with effect sizes ranging from small to medium (ranging from −0.02 to 0.29), though statistical significance was limited due to the small sample size. Multiple regression analysis for distress measures at baseline identified two significant predictors: maternal/paternal affectivity and gestational week. Additionally, positive support from healthcare professionals emerged as a mitigating factor, particularly in relation to Avoidance. A significant reduction in stress measures and parental affectivity was observed at the 6-month follow-up. Qualitative analysis revealed three themes: Shifts in Self-Perception and Post-Loss Growth; Conflicted Relationship with One’s Body; and Negative Impact of COVID-19 vs. Unexpectedly Positive Aspects. In conclusion, the findings emphasize the significance of psychological and psychosocial interventions based on meaning-making processes, along with the importance of spiritual care and empowerment for those navigating perinatal loss. Full article

In the case of violent/traumatic loss due to a completed suicide, there can be an overwhelming and complicated grief reaction followed by a spiritual need for the process of sense making and finding meaning. Some emerging literature on suicide loss survivors (SLSs) denotes that suicide loss is more similar to other forms of bereavement but is uniquely characterized by high levels of shame, guilt, self-blame, and stigma. This article examines themes within the current literature on the bereavement process, meaning-making theory, religion, and spirituality. The aim of this scoping review was to consider the question concerning the clinical utility of accompanying meaning-making interventions with a spiritually informed approach for SLS. The research was conducted through a scoping review. Records were identified through database searches of ProQuest (N = 93); OMNI (N = 184); and EBSCO (N = 63). Through a process involving identification, screening, and eligibility guided by inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 25 (N = 25) articles were used. These articles were analyzed in-depth for commonalities. Grief experiences, religious and spiritual experiences and meaning-making were three themes that emerged from the literature. In conclusion, this review elevates the importance of an integrated clinical counselling approach that encourages meaning-making within the context of spirituality to promote positive psychotherapy outcomes and growth for SLSs. Full article

Background: Bereavement is an inevitable event that can cause pain, discomfort, and negative consequences in daily life. Spirituality and religiosity can help people cope with loss and bereavement. Sometimes, however, the death of a loved one can challenge core religious beliefs and faith, which has been found to be a risk factor for prolonged mourning. Objectives: (1) Determine whether the Italian versions of the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES) and Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG) are valid in translation; (2) Evaluate the impact of socio-demographic variables on ISLES and ICSG dimensions; (3) Test whether Complicated Spiritual Grief mediates the relation between meaning reconstruction after loss and integration of the loss experience; (4) Test whether the representation of death as a form of passage or annihilation further moderated the relation between Complicated Spiritual Grief and integration of the loss. Methods: The sample is composed of 348 participants who had lost a loved person in the prior two years. Results: The ISLES and ICSG were validated in Italian and are more appropriately interpreted as having a unifactorial structure. A greater spiritual crisis was manifested in participants with less education, who did not actively participate in religious life, and who had lost a friend rather than a close relative. As hypothesised, spiritual struggle in grief mediated the role of continuing bonds, Emptiness and Meaninglessness, and Sense of Peace in predicting integration of the loss. Furthermore, death representation moderated the impact of spiritual grief on loss, such that those participants who viewed death as a form of annihilation rather than passage reported greater integration of the loss. Conclusion: The role of meaning making in integrating significant loss is partly accounted for by spiritual struggle in a way that can be analysed in Italian contexts through the use of these newly validated instruments. Full article

Following the death of a loved one, many grievers endorse spirituality as a source of both solace and strain. Studies show that some grievers struggle significantly with both their relationship with God and their faith community, a condition known as complicated spiritual grief (CSG). However, researchers have lacked a simple, multidimensional, well-validated, grief-specific measure of CSG. In this brief report, we reviewed the psychometric validation process and clinical utility of a measure called the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG), which was tested with 304 Christian grievers. The 18-item ICSG was shown to have strong internal consistency, high test–retest reliability, and convergent and incremental validity and supported a two-factor model, measuring one’s insecurity with God and the disruption in one’s religious practice. Full article

Many mourners turn to their spiritual beliefs and traditions when confronted by the death of a loved one. However, prior studies have either focused primarily on the benefits of faith following loss or studied spiritual struggle outside the context of bereavement. Moreover, scales to measure bereavement-related crises of faith and interventions specifically designed for spiritually inclined, distressed grievers are virtually non-existent. Our program of research, which to date has consisted of working with Christian grievers and is outlined below, elucidates complicated spiritual grief (CSG)—a spiritual crisis following the loss of a loved one. For example, our longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors established the relation between positive religious coping, CSG, and complicated grief (CG), to clarify whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa, with a follow-up study that determined the relation between religious coping and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We replicated and expanded these findings with a diverse sample of 150 grievers to explore the complex relation between CSG, CG, and meaning making in a comparison study of mourners who had experienced traumatic-versus natural death losses. In a companion study, we qualitatively analyzed 84 grievers’ narratives and interviewed a 5-member focus group to capture and learn from their firsthand experiences of spiritual distress. To close the gap in terms of CSG assessment, we also developed and validated the Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG). Currently, our ongoing CSG investigation extends in several directions: first, to a sample of family members anticipating the loss of their hospice-eligible loved one in palliative care; and, second, to the development and testing of a writing-intensive intervention for newly bereaved, spiritually inclined grievers. Full article

Both grieving the loss of a loved one and using spirituality or religion as an aid in doing so are common behaviors in the wake of death. This longitudinal examination of 46 African American homicide survivors follows up on our earlier study that established the relation between positive and negative religious coping on the one hand and complicated grief (CG) on the other. In the current report, we broadened this focus to determine the relation between religious coping and other bereavement outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, to establish whether religious coping more strongly predicted bereavement distress or vice versa. We also sought to determine if the predictive power of CG in terms of religious coping over time exceeded that of PTSD and depression. Our results suggested a link between negative religious coping (NRC) and all forms of bereavement distress, whereas no such link was found between positive religious coping (PRC) and bereavement outcomes in our final analyses. Significantly, only CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle six months later. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted. Full article