Risk factors for bereavement outcome: a multivariate approach

Bereavement increases the risk of ill health, but only a minority of bereaved suffers lasting health impairment. Because only this group is likely to profit from bereavement intervention, early identification is important. Previous research is limited, because of cross sectional designs, small numbers of risk factors, and use of a single measure of bereavement outcome. Our longitudinal study avoids these pitfalls by examining the impact of a large set of potential risk factors on grief depressive symptoms, emotional loneliness, and positive mood following recent bereavement (3 years maximum). Participants provided information 3 times over 6 months. A multivariate approach was chosen to avoid reporting spurious results due to confounding. As expected, risk factors were differentially related to different outcome measures. For example, being high in anxious attachment and having lost a partner were related to more intense feelings of emotional loneliness, whereas these variables did not predict any of the other outcome variables. By contrast, social support did not influence emotional loneliness but did predict grief depressive symptoms and positive mood. Implications of these findings are discussed.