Rumination moderates the role of meaning in the development of prolonged grief symptomatology

Abstract

Objective:: To address the etiology of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) by examining whether rumination moderates the role of meaning-making in mediating the impact of PGD risk factors. Method:: A survey assessing PGD risk factors (low social support, insecure attachment, violent loss, neuroticism, and loss of a spouse), meaning, and rumination was administered 2-12 months postloss among adults across North America and Europe (mean age = 44.3, 71.9% female). At a 7-10 months follow-up, symptoms of PGD were assessed (n = 171). Results:: When measuring meaning with the Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory, the moderated mediation pathway was significant for each PGD-risk factor. However, when measuring meaning with the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences-Short Form, the pathway was significant for every risk factors except violent loss.Conclusions:: Rumination appears to moderate meaningmaking in the development of PGD symptomatology. These findings highlight rumination as a target for intervention with atrisk grievers.Author note: This publication is one in a series of separate manuscripts that report findings from an ongoing project. The first manuscript, currently under review, establishes meaning made as a mediator of PGD symptomatology. The second manuscript (Milman et al., 2018), examines which specific themes of meaning mediate the relationship between violent loss and PGD symptomatology. Finally, the current manuscript describes a detrimental relationship between rumination and meaning-making following bereavement. Please contact the authors regarding relevant publications and presentations.This study was conducted jointly with the Jewish

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“…Bellet, Neimeyer, and Berman (2018) found a moderating, buffering role of meaning made on the prediction of protracted grief by the centrality of the loss in the life of the respondents. Milman and colleagues (2019) found a mediating role of meaning made for predicting protracted grief by a series of risk factors, which in turn was moderated by ruminative tendencies; thus, the stronger the ruminative tendency, the weaker the prediction of protracted grief by meaning made. Finally, Hasson‐Ohayon, Peri, Rotschild, and Tuval‐Mashiach (2017) found that self‐reported integration of the event into self‐narrative (a proxy to meaning made) mediated the relation between dissociative tendencies and protracted grief.…”

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