Pet Loss, Complicated Grief, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Hawaii

Adrian, J.; Stitt, Alexander

doi:10.1080/08927936.2017.1270598

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Despite the potential for extreme long-lasting and impactful grief, it is evident through our study that individuals are largely left on their own to find ways of dealing with the death of their CA. Following a human death, support for the bereaved is commonly offered and public ritualization of grief occurs, however this is not the case after the loss of a CA [ 5 , 7 , 9 ]. The grief associated with the loss of a CA is often ignored or diminished, creating a barrier to healing [ 5 , 7 , 9 , 13 , 30 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scientific scrutiny of this caring human-animal cohabitation phenomenon is only just emerging [ 4 – 12 ]. Consequently, CA grief is poorly understood by those responsible for providing social support services or healthcare interventions and also by friends and family members [ 7 – 13 ]. This knowledge gap is highly concerning given that CAs appear to be an international reality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Older women’s experiences of companion animal death: impacts on well-being and aging-in-place

et al. 2021

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Background Companion animal death is a common source of grief, although the extent and context of that grief is poorly understood, especially in older adulthood. The aim of this multiple-methods study was to develop a greater understanding of the impact of companion animal death on older women living alone in the community, as older women are a distinct at-risk group, and the supports that should be available to help these individuals with their grief. Methods Participants were recruited from across Alberta, a Canadian province, through seniors’ organizations, pet rescue groups, and social media groups of interest to older women. After completing a pre-interview online questionnaire to gain demographic information and standardized pet attachment and grief measures data, participants were interviewed through the Zoom ® computer program or over the telephone. An interpretive description methodology framed the interviews, with Braun and Clarke’s 6-phase analytic method used for thematic analysis of interview data. Results In 2020, twelve participants completed the pre-interview questionnaires and nine went on to provide interview data for analysis. All were older adult (age 55+) women, living alone in the community, who had experienced the death of a companion animal in 2019. On the standardized measures, participants scored highly on attachment and loss, but low on guilt and anger. The interview data revealed three themes: catastrophic grief and multiple major losses over the death of their companion animal, immediate steps taken for recovery, and longer-term grief and loss recovery. Conclusions The findings highlight the importance of acknowledging and addressing companion animal grief to ensure the ongoing well-being and thus the sustained successful aging-in-place of older adult women in the community.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Older women’s experiences of companion animal death: impacts on well-being and aging-in-place

et al. 2021

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“…First, the Inventory of Complicated Grief has been reliably used to measure dysfunctional grief symptoms in non-clinical populations, such as college students, for some time [ 84 , 85 ]. In fact, more recent measures, such as the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised [ 86 ] and the Persistent Complex Bereavement Inventory [ 37 ], have successfully assessed complicated grief symptoms in bereaved college students [ 37 , 87 , 88 ]. Second, grief interacted with initial event affect and death avoidant attitudes in two different interactions in the current study, which suggests that the measure was sufficiently sensitive to the grief experienced by our participants at various times.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grief and Avoidant Death Attitudes Combine to Predict the Fading Affect Bias

Gibbons

Lee

Fehr

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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The fading affect bias (FAB) occurs when unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect. To detect mechanisms that influence the FAB in the context of death, we measured neuroticism, depression, anxiety, negative religious coping, death attitudes, and complicated grief as potential predictors of FAB for unpleasant/death and pleasant events at 2 points in time. The FAB was robust across older and newer events, which supported the mobilization-minimization hypothesis. Unexpectedly, complicated grief positively predicted FAB, and death avoidant attitudes moderated this relation, such that the Initial Event Affect by Grief interaction was only significant at the highest 3 quintiles of death avoidant attitudes. These results were likely due to moderate grief ratings, which were, along with avoidant death attitudes, related to healthy outcomes in past research. These results implicate complicated grief and death avoidant attitudes as resiliency mechanisms that are mobilized during bereavement to minimize its unpleasant effects.

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“…Grieving a companion animal can be an intense emotional process, resulting in feelings of sadness, despair, and numbness. The grief experienced by bereaved companion animal owners may mirror that of a human loss [5], particularly for companion animal owners with strong attachment to their companion animal [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The purpose of this study was to explore experiences of companion animal euthanasia and associated coping mechanisms utilized among a large and diverse sample of American companion animal owners. Although numerous previous studies have investigated companion animal bereavement, each were conducted at a single practice [27,28], within a limited geographic region [5,29,30], utilized convenience samples [31,32] or recruited directly from companion animal bereavement support groups or websites [10,25,26]. Further, these studies have traditionally lacked gender diversity, as they have been comprised of predominantly female participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A National Survey of Companion Animal Owners’ Self-Reported Methods of Coping Following Euthanasia

Park

Royal

2020

Veterinary Sciences

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(1) Background: The human–animal bond is often regarded as a special relationship in which owners benefit from unconditional love and perceived understanding from their companion animal. Thus, end-of-life decisions such as euthanasia may inflict significant emotional impact upon the companion animal owner and result in a complicated grief response. The purpose of this study was to examine the methods American companion animal owners utilize to cope with loss following companion animal euthanasia. (2) Methods: A total of 340 companion animal owners with experience euthanizing a companion animal completed an online survey asking how they found comfort after the loss of their companion animal. (3) Results: A total of 74.7% noted that they mourned privately, 58.2% sought social support, 32.1% adopted a new companion animal, 12.4% relied on faith or prayer and 0.9% participated in a support group. (4) Conclusions: Grief associated with companion animal loss is important. As a majority of clients that euthanized their companion animal mourn privately, the veterinary community must work towards identifying and providing appropriate, accessible social resources for bereaved companion animal owners to utilize, if desired.

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Pet Loss, Complicated Grief, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Hawaii

Cited by 23 publications

References 32 publications

Older women’s experiences of companion animal death: impacts on well-being and aging-in-place

Older women’s experiences of companion animal death: impacts on well-being and aging-in-place

Grief and Avoidant Death Attitudes Combine to Predict the Fading Affect Bias

A National Survey of Companion Animal Owners’ Self-Reported Methods of Coping Following Euthanasia

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