The Masking of Mourning: Social Disconnection After Bereavement and Its Role in Psychological Distress

Abstract

Social support has been shown to facilitate adaptation after bereavement in some studies but not others. A felt sense of social disconnection may act as a barrier to the utilization of social support, perhaps explaining these discrepancies. Factorial and psychometric validity of the Oxford Grief-Social Disconnection Scale (OG-SD) was tested in a bereaved sample ( N = 676). A three-factor solution (negative interpretation of others’ reactions to grief expression, altered social self, and safety in solitude) fit the data best and demonstrated excellent psychometric validity. A second three-wave longitudinal sample ( N = 275) recruited 0 to 6 months following loss and followed up 6 and 12 months later completed measures of prolonged grief disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and the OG-SD at each time point. High levels of baseline social disconnection were associated with concurrently high psychological distress. The extent to which social disconnection declined over time predicted resolution of psychological distress.

Prolonged grief and posttraumatic stress disorder following the loss of a significant other: An investigation of cognitive and behavioural differences

“…These measures were subject to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and psychometric testing. All measures met the requirements of factorial validity and acceptable internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent, criterion and divergent validity [ 41 – 43 ].…”

Social acceptance of death and its implication for end‐of‐life care

“…We are currently immersed in a death-denying society (Cottrell & Duggleby, 2016), where the dying process is experienced in solitude (Virdun et al, 2015), and bereavement is not socially allowed (Smith et al, 2020). Several factors have contributed to this transformation, examples of which are the security levels of Western societies (Stanley & Wise, 2011), the decrease in religiosity (Gellie et al,2015), and the technological advances in medicine, which have separated the biological from other aspects of life (Flannery et al, 2016).…”

“…In contrast, these days death is represented as a tragic event that generates great suffering both in the dying person and in their family (Hong et al, 2018;Ibañez-Masero et al, 2019). We are currently immersed in a deathdenying society (Cottrell & Duggleby, 2016), where the dying process is experienced in solitude (Virdun et al, 2015), and bereavement is not socially allowed (Smith, Wild & Ehlers, 2020).…”

Support needs and barriers to accessing support: Baseline results of a mixed-methods national survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Lack of access to, and physical contact with, loved ones at the time of death, restrictions surrounding funerals and the sudden nature of most Covid-19 deaths have caused high levels of distress to those bereaved during the pandemic(1-4). Traumatic end-of-life and death experiences add to the complexity of grief(5-11), whilst limited access to usual support networks and severe societal disruption are also likely to increase risks of poor bereavement outcomes(11-14).…”