Spiritual experience, church attendance, and bereavement.

Examines the empirical relationships among spiritual experience, church attendance, and bereavement adjustment in a sample (N = 85) of individuals grieving the death of a significant person in their lives. Results indicate that those participants evidencing high levels of spiritual experience showed lower levels of problematic grief affect. Notes that church attendance appeared to influence grief adjustment only to the extent that it was positively correlated with spiritual experience. Discusses implications for pastoral caregiving.

Scott and White Grief Study--phase 2: toward an adaptive model of grief.

The current study was a dual investigation focused both on the pathogenesis of grief responses and on factors associated with personal growth as a bereavement outcome in a heterogeneous sample of 85 mourners. To examine the pathogenesis of grief, the authors tested the ability of several high-risk factors to predict mourners' subsequent emotional intensity on 2 dependent measures: the Grief Experience Inventory and the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist. Three situational variables (traumatic death, younger age of decedent, and perception of preventability) as well as 2 mourner liabilities (history of mental health treatment and greater number of other losses) were associated with higher subjective grief misery scores. When using personal growth as a positive outcome following bereavement, the authors identified 4 behavioral correlates of adaptive grieving: ability to see some good resulting from the death, having a chance to say goodbye, intrinsic spirituality, and spontaneous positive memories of the decedent. The advantages of an adaptive model of grief for generating treatment implications are discussed.