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The witnessing of disenfranchised grief: reliability and validity
Background And Purpose:
To examine the psychometric properties of a newly designed instrument: Witnessing of Disenfranchised Grief (WDG).
Methods:
The 22-item questionnaire was administered to a community-based sample of convenience (N = 201). Each subject reported having experienced a loss by death or miscarriage. There was no stipulation regarding the timing of the loss.
Results:
The tool was found to be one dimensional with factor loadings of 0.40-0.78, inter-item correlation ranging from p < .01 to p < .05, and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. A loss that was viewed as witnessed resulted in decreased manifestation of some grief symptoms.
Conclusions:
The WDG is a measure of the degree to which one who grieves perceives their loss to be witnessed.
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