COVID-19 has caused nearly 4.3 million deaths all around the world. People who have experienced loss during this special period may find it difficult to adapt to life after loss, and may even suffer from prolonged grief disorder or other mental health problems. However, there is a huge gap of grief research in China, with almost no comprehensive grief intervention training system or very few professional grief consultants. Considering the large number of bereaved individuals who are suffering from grief and other mental health problems, it is significant to develop a suitable and effective intervention protocol immediately. This article illustrates a study protocol initiated by a Chinese university to investigate the mental health of bereaved individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic and train grief counselors to provide grief counseling to the bereaved, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the grief counseling. The method is as follows: (1) 300 psychological counselors will be recruited to attend the grief counseling training. Assessments will be conducted at three time points: baseline (T0), after the basic training (T1), and after the advanced training (T2); (2) 500 bereaved Chinese will be recruit to join the online survey and will be assessed at two time points with a six-month interval; and (3) a two-armed (grief counseling versus wait-list controls) RCT (random control trials) will be conducted with 160 bereaved individuals. Assessments will be conducted at three time points: before randomization (baseline, T0), at the post-counseling (T1), and three months after the post-counseling (T2). Primary outcomes will be assessed by the Prolonged Grief Questionnaire (PG-13), the 20-item PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). This research will help develop grief research and grief counseling in China, as well as provide professional mental health services for individuals who may suffer from grief-related disorders in the future.

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The Typical Beliefs Questionnaire (TBQ) assesses common grief-related cognitions, which demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in a treatment-seeking sample with prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Chinese shidu parents (bereaved parents over the age of 49 who have lost their only child) are at a high risk of PGD. The current study aimed to examine psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the TBQ (TBQ-C) in a community sample of shidu parents with and without PGD, to compare this to the original validation clinical sample in the United States bereaved of any close relationship and to consider its use as a clinical tool. We examined the rate of positive endorsement, factor structure, internal consistency and validity of the TBQ-C in 310 community-based shidu parents (including 102 who met the criteria for PGD). Results showed that the rate of positive endorsement for each item ranged from 7.2% to 48.6% among non-PGD participants and from 20.6% to 92.2% among PGD participants. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original fivefactor structure fit both the non-PGD and PGD shidu parents. The TBQ-C showed acceptable internal consistency and satisfactory convergent and concurrent validity in both groups. It had good discriminant validity and can be helpful in distinguishing shidu parents with and without PGD. The TBQ-C can be used to investigate common grief-related beliefs that may be problematic for both shidu parents with and without PGD.