Beyond Depression

Yearning for the Loss of a Loved One

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13627802
AutoresWolfgang Stroebe (0000-0003-2767-2838, Utrecht University, autor correspondente), Georgios Abakoumkin (0000-0002-1671-3561, University of Thessaly), Margaret S Stroebe (0000-0002-8468-3317, Utrecht University)
Ano2010
Volume61
Fascículo2
Páginas85-101
Data de publicação2010-06-29
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2190/om.61.2.a
PMID20712138
OpenAlexW1974426087
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas32

Studies assessing the impact of relationship quality and social support on marital bereavement have typically focussed on depressive symptoms as the major (and often only) bereavement outcome. Although sadness and depression are important symptoms of grieving, they are neither the only nor necessarily the most important ones. We argue that in addition to measures of depression, grief measures need to be used in assessing bereavement outcome. However, grief measures do not only assess reactions that are specific to bereavement such as yearning, but also general responses that grief shares with other critical life events (e.g., anxiety, shock, anger, intrusive thoughts, and despair). We would expect marital quality to only affect yearning for the loved one who died, but not other more general grief reactions. In contrast, experiencing support from family and friends, though unlikely to reduce yearning, might ameliorate these general grief symptoms as well as depression. Using data on widows from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, a large-scale prospective study of older couples, we assessed the relationship between marital quality and social support with depression and grief on the death of a spouse. Consistent with hypotheses, social support but not relationship quality was associated with depression and general grief reactions. In contrast, relationship quality but not social support was associated with yearning. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Anger · Anxiety · Depression (economics · Grief · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Sadness · Social support · Spouse · Traumatic grief · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Clinical Psychology · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology