Do Shattered Worldviews Lead to Complicated Grief? Prospective and Longitudinal Analyses

Abstract

Theories of complicated grief (CG) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) posit a central etiological and maintaining role for global beliefs about the world (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). in two studies using separate bereaved samples, we examined these theoretical postulates. Study 1 included prospective data on bereaved spouses and nonbereaved controls at baseline and 6-months post-loss. high pre-loss justice beliefs and acceptance of death prospectively predicted lower depression in bereaved but not control participants, providing evidence for buffering effects. Study 2 used longitudinal data on bereaved spouses and parents (4-and 18-months post-loss), and matched nonbereaved controls. in comparisons to matched controls, bereaved persons showed more benevolent but less meaningful worldviews, and violent or sudden loss was not associated with negative worldviews. in contrast to theoretical proposals, early benevolence, and meaningfulness beliefs showed no longitudinal relation to later PTSD, grief, and depression symptoms. By contrast, early PTSD, grief, and depression predicted later levels of benevolence. findings support that pre-loss worldviews can buffer

Social support and psychological well-being as possible predictors of complicated grief in a cross-section of people in mourning. [Apoyo social y bienestar psicológico como posibles predictores de estado de duelo complicado en poblac de personas en duelo]

“…Thus, social support (SS) counted on by a person in mourning, may be a matter of much importance in the early stages, of softening and cushioning the impact of the death of a loved one (damping effect), as well as in the final stages of assisting the improvement and recovery of the bereaved (recovery effect) (Lobb et al, 2010;Mancini, Prati & Bonanno, 2011;Stroebe, Wech, Stroebe & Abakoumkin, 2005).…”

The Language of Loss: Modeling a Transformative Narrative of Grief

“…He feels that the isolating experience of pain is not only unbearable, but more distressingly, it is unfair. Mancini et al (2011) find that a pre-established negative worldview will more likely be confirmed by another traumatic event. This heightens a sense of threat, and the bereaved, as in the case of Jacob, may feel even more powerless.…”

“…He did not just lose a bedridden, weakened person to be cared for; he lost the gal who made him feel weak at the knees with a flashing smile on their first date. Mancini, Prati, and Bonanno (2011) extend the meaning of loss to a worldview, which is a global belief that influences how one appraises and responds to stressors. A worldview may have either buffering or shattering effects.…”

“…There are various models of worldviews that fall along a spectrum of predicting negative or positive impacts of loss, such as belief in a just world, belief in personal injustice, belief in uncontrollability of negative events, or acceptance of death (Mancini et al, 2011). It is clear that Jacob identifies with a belief in personal injustice.…”

Adaptation of the Scrambled-Sentences Task to Assess “Shattered Assumptions:” Construction of the Test and Investigation of Neural Substrates in an fMRI Study

“…This account of posttraumatic states does not require the related schemas to differ qualitatively from those of depressive or anxious states but only to appear in new contexts and challenge existing implicit accounts of the world or the self. Accordingly, the prevalence of shattered assumptions may be observed in states that are typically associated with depressive pathologies, such as mourning [30] and neuroticism [17], where the irruptive quality of the negative schemas progressively fades. If this interpretation is correct, the SST failed to provide evidence on the activity of trauma-related schemas because these schemas are similar to those observed in affective disorders, while the specificity of trauma derives from its structural impact on a previous schematic organization.…”