Men and Women and Their Responses in Spousal Bereavement

ABSTRACT

In this study, the Grief Experience Inventory was used to examine grief responses among men and women associated with a Colorado hospice program. Using this inventory instrument, the findings document a broad range of emotional responses to grief among men and women, yet no significant differences were found. These findings appear to differ from the perceptions of bereavement counselors who often identify behavioral differences in the grief experiences of men and women. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected]]

KEYWORDS:

• conjugal bereavement
• gender
• grief
• grief experience inventory
• spousal bereavement

Notes

Initiating research in this area and considering the juxtaposition of the scientific and the poetic perspectives prompts a quote from a cherished colleague. “Objectivity and reliability are losing some of their credibility as the only measure of the human experience. This is occurring even in the hard sciences as the search for meaning is replacing the search for truth” (J. Nagel, M.D., October 1995, personal communication).

This agency is a member of the National Hospice Organization.

The Grief Experience Inventory was developed utilizing longitudinal data from disaster survivors (Lindemann, 1944), interviews with widows (Marris, 1958), interviews with widows that emphasized the longitudinal aspects of grief (Parkes, 1970; Lopata, 1971), examination of medical records (Krauss and Lilienfeld, 1959), health records (Benjamin & Wallis, 1963), and longitudinal structured interviews of widows and widowers (Glick, Weiss & Parkes, 1927). A sample base on 693 participants makes up the normative group and is comprised of college students, community residents, members of a Golden Age Club, as well as participants in recently completed studies; all of whom had experienced the death of a close relative within a year of the time of study. In a number of these studies the instrument has demonstrated the ability to detect gender differences in grief responses.

The Grief Experience Inventory takes approximately 20 minutes for an individual to complete. The inventory measures responses on three validity scales; atypical responses, denial, and social responsibility. The validity scales indicate whether a respondent’s scores are interpretable. For example, the denial scale indicates a respondent’s hesitancy to admit to the common and socially undesirable weaknesses and feelings associated with loss (Sanders, p. 7). The inventory further measures nine clinical elements of bereavement. The bereavement scales measure the respondent’s mood or psychological reaction in their grief process. These scales include despair, anger, guilt, social isolation, loss of control, rumination, depersonalization, somatization, and death anxiety.

The scoring profile is designed so that the result of plotting the scores on a grid is that the T-scores are automatically obtained. A T-score is a standard with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. The larger the T-score the greater the intensity of the behavior measured by the scale (Sanders 1985). The GEI T-scores have not been normalized. They are transformations of raw scores” (Sanders et al., p. 5).

Twenty-one bereavement specialists were queried regarding their practice with men and women. Each of the specialists was asked to respond to these findings of this study. This comment about the feminine model for grieving came from these personal discussions.

Many elderly men identified a tendency in themselves as younger men, to try, sometimes successfully, to repress emotions following an expression of bereavement (Littlewood 1992).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David G. Quigley

David G. Quigley, MSW, is Bereavement Director, Pikes Peak Hospice, Colorado Springs, CO.

Mona S. Schatz

Mona S. Schatz, DSW, is Associate Professor and Director of the Education and Research Institute for Fostering Families, Department of Social Work, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO.