Death of a close friend: Short and long-term impacts on physical, psychological and social well-being

Abstract

This paper reports the impact of a major life event–death–on the physical, psychological and social well-being of the deceased’s close friends. We utilised data from a large longitudinal survey covering a period of 14 years (2002–2015) consisting a cohort of 26,515 individuals in Australia, of whom 9,586 had experienced the death of at least one close friend. This longitudinal cohort dataset comprises responses to the SF-36 (health related quality of life measure) and allowed for analysis of the short and longer-term impacts of bereavement. In order to manage the heterogeneity of the socio-demographics of respondents who did/not experience a death event, we use a new and robust approach known as the Entropy Balancing method to construct a set of weights applied to the bereaved group and the control group (the group that did not experience death). This approach enables us to match the two groups so that the distribution of socio-demographic variables between the two groups are balanced. These variables included gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, personality traits, religion, relative socio-economic disadvantage, economic resources, and education and occupation and where they resided. The data show, for the first time, a range of negative and enduring consequences experienced by people following the death of a close friend. Significant adverse physical and psychological well-being, poorer mental health and social functioning occur up to four years following bereavement. Bereaved females experienced a sharper fall in vitality, suffered greater deterioration in mental health, impaired emotional and social functioning than the male counterparts up to four years after the death. The data show that the level of social connectedness plays an important role in bereavement outcomes. Specifically, we found that less socially active respondents experienced a longer deterioration in physical and psychological health. Finally, we found evidence that the death of a close friend lowered the respondent’s satisfaction with their health. Since death of friends is a universal phenomenon, we conclude the paper by reflecting on the need to recognise the death of a close friend as a substantial experience, and to offer support and services to address this disenfranchised grief. Recognising bereaved friends as a group experiencing adverse outcomes can be used internationally to prompt health and psychological services to assist this specific group, noting that there may be substantial longevity to the negative sequelae of the death of a friend. Facilitating bereaved people’s support networks may be a fruitful approach to minimising these negative outcomes.

Attachment and Grief in Young Adults after the Loss of a Close Friend: A Qualitative Study

“…This was explained by not having fun in social settings anymore, not wanting to be parts of larger groups, and experiencing reminders of their friends. Being socially inactive can however prolong the deterioration in physical and mental health after a loss (30). The internal structure and distinctiveness of CG in adolescents may bear resemblance to what is known from adult populations, but focus on depressive and anxious symptoms in bereavement-related distress might overlook that other patterns of complications may occur in bereaved adolescents (6).…”

“…This could be explained by: (a) adolescents idealize their retrospective accounts; (b) as they move beyond the initial grief, they realize how upset they were initially, and appraise and report the past grief more accurately; and (c) the memory of the past grief is stronger in comparison to present grief. Liu and colleagues (30) found that loss of a friend caused signi cant adverse physical and psychological wellbeing, poorer mental health and impairment in social functioning, which occur up to four years following bereavement. Having to go back to reality, both to work or school or socially, often without being able to perform or function the way they wanted and expected, was di cult for many of the bereaved friends in our sample.…”

“…Bereaved friends can have severe and long-lasting reactions after a loss, and should be recognized as a group of bereaved, so that they can receive the help and support that they need (30). Servaty-Seib and Pistole (33) highlight the importance of researchers and professionals intentionally and directly assessing bereaved adolescents' perceived emotional closeness to the deceased as part of grief-related counselling, and to consider attachment, when examining closeness in adolescent friend and kin relationships.…”

Loss and lastingness? Further exploring the relationship between the death of a close other, belief in an everlasting soul, and terror management processes

“…These results suggest that post-DOCO functioning may be supported through the investment in and defense of valued worldviews, self-esteem, and identities. Indeed, previous research on grief and bereavement suggest that those who have endured the death of someone close can benefit from engaging with broader social groups and reconstructing a sense of meaning in life (e.g., Liu et al, 2019;Neimeyer et al, 2006;Pressman & Bonanno, 2007). Moreover, some work has found that self-enhancement helps to support psychological adjustment following potentially traumatic experiences, including the death of a close other (Gupta & Bonanno, 2010;Yan & Bonanno, 2015).…”

In Good Times and in Bad: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Bereavement on Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction in Couples

“…For the present study, we anticipate somewhat lower effect sizes as we study comparatively less close relationship partners. Evidence is scarce but a recent study has revealed effects of friend loss of .11 for life satisfaction after 10-12 months (Liu et al, 2019).…”