Desire thinking as a cognitive mechanism of yearning after bereavement

Yearning is the hallmark of grief and prolonged grief disorder, but its psychological underpinnings are poorly understood. We aimed to address this by building on the phenomenological similarities with craving and investigating the role of desire thinking, a voluntary cognitive process central to activating craving.

Determining the factorial and psychometric properties of the Oxford Grief Desire Thinking scale (OG-DT) and testing whether desire thinking dimensions prospectively predict proximity-seeking, and whether this association is mediated by subsequent yearning.

We drew on data from the Oxford Grief Study. Two community samples of bereaved adults (cross-sectional N = 676, longitudinal N = 50) completed the OG-DT and measures of psychological symptoms. A three-wave longitudinal sample (N = 275) completed the OG-DT and measures of yearning and proximity-seeking at 0-6 months after loss as well as 6 and 12 months later.

The two-factor solution of the OG-DT, imaginal reunion and elaborative efforts, showed excellent internal consistency, test-retest reliability, as well as convergent and criterion validity. Yearning mediated the relationship between both imaginal reunion and elaborative efforts and proximity-seeking behaviors.

The samples comprised community-dwelling adults, who were predominantly Caucasian and female. Yearning was assessed with a single item.

These findings suggest that desire thinking may be a cognitive driver of yearning, which in turn motivates efforts to cope with the unfulfillable desire. Thus, desire thinking could present a new modifiable target for intervention.