Military-bereaved siblings' growth and distress - Interplays between interpersonal factors and commemoration

Sibling bereavement due to military casualties can produce psychological distress but can also elicit personal growth. This research explored the association between psychological distress and post-traumatic growth (PTG) among military-bereaved siblings via a moderated mediation model. Israeli military-bereaved siblings were recruited through a nonprofit organization devoted to bereaved siblings of military casualties. Participants (N = 155) completed questionnaires of posttraumatic growth, distress, commemoration, social support. Results supported the moderated mediation study model. Specifically, higher psychological distress was associated with lower social support, which was subsequently associated with lower self-disclosure, for the entire sample. This association was strongest for bereaved siblings with high relief-related commemoration, which was then associated with lower PTG. Pursuant to our findings, mental health professionals need to guide bereaved siblings toward involvement in commemoration activities that bring them relief, thus further enabling social support that facilitates personal disclosure and, subsequently, PTG.

Factors Contributing to Posttraumatic Growth Following Bereavement

Multiple factors have been studied to determine their relationship to posttraumatic growth, with findings suggesting the importance of resiliency (Bensimon, 2012), social support (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004), event centrality (Taku et al., 2014), religious coping (Pargament et al., 2006), relationship to the deceased (Oginska-Bulik, 2015), and the circumstance of passing (Feigelman et al., 2009). This study investigated the relationship of these identified factors with posttraumatic growth in a sample of 165 bereaved individuals. Regression results indicated that the overall model predicted scores on posttraumatic growth (R2 = .473, R2 adj = .456, F (5, 159) = 28.51, p < .001), with most robust effects found in social support (β = .281), religious commitment (β = .289), and event centrality (β = .410). This indicates bereavement experiences can result in significant growth in individuals, particularly those who seek social support, identify the event as an essential part of their experience, and identify religion as an important aspect of their routine.

A Loss by Suicide: The Relationship Between Meaning-Making, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Complicated Grief

Meaning making has been found useful in processing grief, yet individuals who have experienced a loss by suicide may have difficulty with post-loss adjustment due to the traumatic nature of their loss. Through quantitative study, this article acts as an initial exploratory study and examines the relationship between meaning-making, post-traumatic growth, and complicated grief symptoms in 81 college students from a large university in the United States who have experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide. The results of this study indicated that meaning-making serves as a mediator in the relationship with post-traumatic growth and complicated grief. This finding sheds light on the importance of meaning-making as a possible avenue of interventions for clinical use in bereavement from loss by suicide to treat grief symptoms and lead to post-traumatic growth.

Validation of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory in Adolescents Who Lost a Family Member in the Past 4 years: Effects of Time After the Death Event and Gender

Post-traumatic growth is the psychological capacity to perceive positive changes facing high-stress or potentially traumatic events and may be especially useful in lessening their effects in adolescents' lives. Present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) in 662 Peruvian adolescents who suffered the death of an immediate family member over the last 4 years. Firstly, an exploratory graphical analysis (EGA) was conducted to determine the best parsimonious structure of the instrument and confirmed with its respective factor models. The results report adequate fit indices in the EGA Bifactor model. Furthermore, another structural model is included, which reports significant latent effects of the time elapsed since the relative's death and gender (male) on PTGI general factor. Likewise, gender measure was significantly related to items 3, 7, and 11, which is linked to personal growth.

Growing in Suffering: The Curvilinear Relationship Between Prolonged Grief and Post-traumatic Growth of Recently Bereaved Individual During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges to mourning and growth of bereaved. The purpose is to explore the relationship between the prolonged grief (PG) symptoms and the post-traumatic growth (PTG) of recently bereaved people during the COVID-19 period, and the mediating role of meaning making. 305 participants were recruited to complete the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Inventory of Complicated Grief, and Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses and Medcurve in SPSS were adapted to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that there was a curvilinear relationship between PG and PTG and meaning making had a completely mediating effect on this relationship. Different intervention goals - whether alleviating distress or cultivating growth - should be set up according to the level of grief for recently bereaved individuals during COVID-19. More attention should be paid to the role of meaning making in the future clinical practice.

Working With a Psychopath: Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Having a supervisor with psychopathic characteristics is related to being bullied, poorer job satisfaction, work/family life conflict, financial instability, and distress. To date, all research on corporate psychopathy victims considers how they are negatively impacted rather than potential positive outcomes. In response, this study examined how working with a psychopath impacts posttraumatic growth (PTG). Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this study draws upon the experiences of 285 individuals who have worked with a colleague or supervisor with alleged psychopathic characteristics. Results indicated that approach coping and psychopathic characteristics predicted PTG. Qualitative analyses revealed that the majority of participants used various coping strategies (e.g., emotion-focused), received support (e.g., emotional), and underwent post-experiential growth or learning (e.g., positive personal growth); not all growth/learning was positive, however (e.g., less trusting). Results suggest that cultivating approach-focused coping strategies may enhance PTG following a traumatic event.

Longitudinal Intercorrelations between Complicated Grief and Posttraumatic Growth among Suicide Survivors

BACKGROUND

Suicide survivors are prone to elevated risk for several psychiatric and somatic complications, including complicated grief (CG) and depression. Recent studies have highlighted the possibility of posttraumatic growth (PTG) among suicide survivors. However, to date, no longitudinal study has focused on the relationships between CG and PTG among suicide survivors.

AIMS

In this 18-month longitudinal design study, our goal was to investigate the longitudinal bidirectional associations between PTG and CG, as well as between PTG and depression among suicide survivors.

METHOD

Participants were156 suicide-loss survivors, aged 18-70, who completed questionnaires tapping the CG and PTG at T1 and again after 18 months (T2). Depression was measured only at T2.

RESULTS

The integrated model showed that CG-T1 predicts a reduction in PTG-T2 levels, beyond the trajectory of PTG. Whereas PTG-T1 was negatively correlated with CG-T2 and with depression at T2, this path was only marginally significant in the model.

LIMITATIONS

Voluntary nature of the participants; self-report measures; lack of pre-suicide-loss assessment.

CONCLUSION

The study's findings suggest that CG levels play an important role in facilitating PTG among suicide survivors, with high CG levels impeding the possibility of growth. PTG did not act as a coping strategy to reduce CG. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Posttraumatic growth in women who have experienced the loss of their spouse or partner

BACKGROUND

The loss of a spouse or long-term partner has a significant impact on a woman's well-being; psychological, physical, social, spiritual, and economic. Women dealing with loss are faced with numerous stressors which place them at risk for a variety of health challenges.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of women who have lost their spouse or partner to death using the theoretical framework of posttraumatic growth (PTG) developed by Tedeschi and Calhoun.

METHODS

A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with semi-structured interviews of 15 widows. Purposive sampling was employed using the researchers' nursing network of colleagues through their academic institutions, hospital affiliations, and professional organizations.

FINDINGS

Six themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Listen to my story of loss, (2) Pushing through the sadness, (3) Anticipated versus unanticipated loss, (4) A new depth of compassion and empathy, (5) My strength grew over time, and (6) My view of myself changed. Participants experienced varying degrees of PTG evidenced by a greater appreciation of life, personal strength, improved relationships, new possibilities, and spiritual growth.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

Knowledge development in this sphere enhances nursing practice in caring for women as they navigate life without their significant other. Nurses are in pivotal positions to educate others about the grieving process and the possibility of PTG. They help women find their way through trauma and teach others about healing, coping, empathy, compassion and the power of being connected to other human beings.

The Role of Private Religious Practices, Spiritual Mindfulness, and Years Since Loss on Perceived Growth in Widowed Adults

Private religiosity can lead to perceived growth after bereavement, but little is known about the role of mindfulness and the time since loss in widowed adults. Using data from the second panel of the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS), this study examined adults (n = 250) who were married one time and became widowed. Results showed that spiritual mindfulness moderated the effect of private religious practices on personal growth, and that the association between spiritual mindfulness and positive reinterpretation was moderated by time since loss. A high level of spiritual mindfulness seems to benefit widowed adults' personal growth and positive reinterpretation. Additionally, the greater time since loss the more positive is the association between mindfulness and positive reinterpretation. No difference was found in means between widowed adults and a matched control group of non-widowed adults (n = 250) on personal growth and positive reinterpretation.

Grief and Posttraumatic Growth Among Chinese Bereaved Parents Who Lost Their Only Child: The Moderating Role of Interpersonal Loss

Objective: Losing the only child is considered as the most severe kind of bereavement. It can trigger intense grief symptoms along with loss of psychosocial resources, but meanwhile, it can also lead to posttraumatic growth (PTG). The current study aimed to examine (a) whether a curvilinear relationship exists between grief and PTG and (b) the moderating role of resources-loss among Chinese bereaved parents who lost their only child (shidu parents). Methods: One hundred and ninety-nine shidu parents from five provinces completed the assessment packet covering prolonged grief symptoms and PTG, as well as resource loss. Hierarchical regression analyses were computed to examine the curvilinear relationship and the moderating effect of interpersonal loss and socio-economic loss. Results: There was no significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. Under the high levels of interpersonal loss, shidu parents' PTG scores decreased as the severity of grief increased. However, the socio-economic loss did not show a significant moderating effect. Conclusion: The results of the current study did not show a significant curvilinear relationship between grief and PTG in shidu parents. High levels of grief coupled with high levels of interpersonal loss may interfere with their ability to achieve PTG. Therefore, evaluating degrees of interpersonal loss seems to be an important part of the treatment process when working with shidu parents. To facilitate their adaptation from a positive perspective, helping them maintain existing or develop new interpersonal relationships may be helpful.

A Meta-Analysis of Expressive Writing on Posttraumatic Stress, Posttraumatic Growth, and Quality of Life

Expressive writing is beneficial for promoting both positive psychological and physical health outcomes. Unfortunately, inhibiting emotions is related to impairments in psychological and physical health. James Pennebaker and others have used expressive writing as an experimental manipulation to gauge its efficacy in treating a wide variety of physical and psychological outcomes. While many studies have been conducted that examine the efficacy of expressive writing across such outcomes, a considerable amount of these studies tend to neglect necessary considerations, such as different levels of symptomatology, power, and meaningfulness of respective effect sizes. Six previous meta-analyses have been conducted that examine expressive writing’s effect on psychological outcomes. However, these studies focus on the experimental versus control group effect size. Thus, our meta-analysis sought to examine the efficacy of an expressive writing task on only the experimental conditions in studies measuring posttraumatic stress, posttraumatic growth, and quality of life using random effects models. Results indicated a small overall effect size for posttraumatic stress and negligible to small effect sizes for posttraumatic growth and quality of life. However, those studies requiring a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibited a medium to large effect size. Implications for future research design and interpretation of published research are discussed.

Grief intensity, coping and psychological health among family members and friends following a terrorist attack

This study investigates the association of psychological health with grief intensity and coping style among family members and friends of terror victims. The data was collected from 164 bereaved individuals, on average, 18 months after the bombings occurred. The results demonstrated the significant role of problem-focused social support, and religious coping in dealing with grief intensity and contributing to the psychological health. The findings may be of considerable importance in therapeutic situations by providing direction for coping with both the effects of traumatic event and a traumatic loss, and for maintaining emotional stability through reworking relationships with the deceased.

Relationship with the deceased as facilitator of posttraumatic growth among suicide-loss survivors

This study aimed to investigate the role of ongoing relationships with the deceased in facilitating posttraumatic growth among suicide-loss survivors. The sample comprised 58 suicide-loss survivors, 48 sudden-death, and 53 natural-death bereaved individuals, who completed questionnaires assessing the two-track model of bereavement, grief, and growth-related characteristics. Suicide-loss survivors reported lower levels of positive relationships with the deceased than did the other groups. An interaction was found between relational-active grieving and type of death in predicting posttraumatic growth. The study concluded that intense grief along with preoccupation with the deceased lessened positive personal transformation, especially among those struggling with a loved one's suicide.