The relation of continuing attachment to adjustment in conjugal bereavement.
The role of continuing attachment in adjustment to conjugal loss was examined. At 6 months postloss, 70 midlife bereaved participants were interviewed to assess different forms of continuing attachment. They also engaged in a monologue role-play with their deceased spouse, providing a behavioral measure of grief-related distress. In addition, they completed general and grief-specific symptom inventories at 6 months and again at 14 and 25 months postloss. The results indicated that use of the deceased's possessions to gain comfort was positively correlated with concurrent distress in the role-play and predictive to less of a decrease in grief-specific symptoms over time in a growth curve analysis. In contrast, attachment through fond memories was related to less distress in the role-play. The results, therefore, suggest that whether continuing attachment is adaptive or not depends on its form.
Field
N P
NP
Department of Psychology, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto, California 94303, USA. n.field@pgsp.edu
Nichols
C
C
Holen
A
A
Horowitz
M J
MJ
D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001601:Bereavement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D012381:Role Playing; D012650:Self Disclosure; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires