A psychometric evaluation of the core bereavement items

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Core Bereavement Items (CBI) is frequently used to assess grief.
• Empirical validation of the CBI's psychometric properties is limited.
• Understanding the CBI's structure is crucial for accurate grief assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factor structure, internal reliability, and concurrent validity of the CBI.
• To examine the CBI's psychometric properties in a large, diverse sample of bereaved young adults.
• To determine if the CBI can reliably differentiate aspects of grief.

Main Methods:

• Utilized exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a sample of 1,366 bereaved young adults.
• Assessed internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha.
• Examined concurrent validity by correlating CBI factors with demographic, circumstantial, and prolonged grief measures.

Main Results:

• A two-factor structure for the CBI was supported, comprising 'Thoughts' and 'Emotional Response' to loss.
• Both factors demonstrated strong internal consistency.
• The factors showed significant associations with demographic variables, loss circumstances, and prolonged grief indicators.

Conclusions:

• The CBI's two-factor structure (Thoughts and Emotional Response) is psychometrically sound for bereaved young adults.
• The CBI demonstrates good reliability and validity for assessing distinct grief dimensions.
• These findings support the CBI's utility in clinical and research settings for understanding bereavement.