Potential risk factors for acute grief during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of avoidance processes.

Bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic may have some unique characteristics that become potential risk factors (e.g., absence of grief rituals, no opportunity to say goodbye to the deceased and loneliness caused by social distancing) for acute grief. Avoidance processes could be significant mediators in the context of the pandemic. The current study aimed to investigate whether and how these COVID-19-related risk factors were related to acute grief severity. Bereaved adults (n = 319) who lost significant others during the COVID-19 pandemic completed a self-report questionnaire package measuring COVID-19-related factors, grief severity and depressive and anxious avoidance. Regression analyses suggested that among the three potential risk factors (loneliness, grief rituals and opportunity to say goodbye), loneliness was significantly associated with acute grief after controlling for basic demographic and loss-related information. Structural equation models suggested that depressive avoidance and anxious avoidance partially mediated the associations of loneliness with acute grief severity. The findings indicate that dealing with loss during the COVID-19 pandemic warrants further exploration concerning how potential environmental risk factors may impede adaptation to loss. Depressive and anxious avoidance processes may play important roles in grief interventions for isolated and lonely bereaved people.

Growing in Suffering: The Curvilinear Relationship Between Prolonged Grief and Post-traumatic Growth of Recently Bereaved Individual During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges to mourning and growth of bereaved. The purpose is to explore the relationship between the prolonged grief (PG) symptoms and the post-traumatic growth (PTG) of recently bereaved people during the COVID-19 period, and the mediating role of meaning making. 305 participants were recruited to complete the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Inventory of Complicated Grief, and Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses and Medcurve in SPSS were adapted to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that there was a curvilinear relationship between PG and PTG and meaning making had a completely mediating effect on this relationship. Different intervention goals - whether alleviating distress or cultivating growth - should be set up according to the level of grief for recently bereaved individuals during COVID-19. More attention should be paid to the role of meaning making in the future clinical practice.

Fear of contamination, perceived social support and physical health of health social workers in Hong Kong: A cross-sectional survey.

Hong Kong experienced the SARS pandemic in 2003. Seventeen years later, the Covid-19 pandemic now challenges Hong Kong and the world. This study aims to unveil the impact of the pandemic on health social workers. One hundred and sixty-six health care social workers in Hong Kong were recruited to join a cross-sectional online survey from November 2020 to March 2021. This paper includes the analysis of the demographic information, fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health only. Irrespective of the demographic background, the level of fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health were similar. The mean scores of the two dimensions of fear of contamination (Harm avoidance: m = 7.49, s.d. = 3.25; Disgust avoidance: m = 7.75, s.d. = 2.90) were higher than those of general public and clinical samples with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No moderation effects were found in resilience and perceived social support in the relationship of fear of contamination and physical health. Instead, direct effects were shown.The impact of the pandemic on health social workers was universal. Psychoeducational programs to alleviate the fear of contamination and organizational-level interventions to improve workplace social support are highly needed.

Grief Reactions and Grief Counseling among Bereaved Chinese Individuals during COVID-19 Pandemic: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Combined with a Longitudinal Study.

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.