An Investigation of the Relationship of Personality, Coping, and Grief Intensity Among Bereaved Mothers

Abstract

A mediational model of grief intensity (Meuser & Marwit, 2000) was examined in a population at risk for complicated grief. Coping strategies (emotion-oriented, task-oriented, and avoidance-oriented coping) were hypothesized to mediate the influence of personality factors (neuroticism and extraversion) on grief. Bereaved mothers (N = 138) completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and Revised Grief Experiences Inventory. Coping strategies partially mediated the influence of personality factors on grief. However, compared to prior findings among bereaved spouses, coping played a weaker mediating role, and neuroticism had a stronger direct influence on grief among bereaved mothers. Results suggest that personality and coping factors may function differently across different loss circumstances.

Notes

¹Unfortunately, data were not collected on the number of parents initially approached for participation in the study, nor on the number of questionnaire packets mailed versus returned. Therefore, it is not possible to provide data on the response rate among potential participants.

²Cumulative percentage < 100 due to missing data.

³A discrepancy between the present study and that of Meuser and Marwit (2000) is that two variables, normative acceptability of the death and threat appraisal, were not measured as part of the data collection among bereaved parents.

⁴A fourth block of predictors involving interactions between personality and coping variables was initially included in Meuser and Marwit's (2000) regression model. However, in Meuser and Marwit's study, including these interaction variables resulted in degradation of the model's overall prediction, a problem that they attributed to either low statistical power or multicolinearity between interaction variables. In the present study, personality x coping interactions were included in an initial regression run to test whether this problem might be eliminated in the context of the current, larger sample. Unfortunately, the same problem of degradation of the model occurred. Therefore, the interaction variables were excluded from the final analysis (see Meuser, 1997 for a discussion of this statistical dilemma).

Note. RGEI = Revised Grief Experience Inventory, total score; TSL = Time Since Loss; N = Neuroticism; E = Extraversion; EOC = Emotion-oriented Coping; TOC = Task-oriented Coping; AOC = Avoidance-oriented Coping.

∗p < .05,

∗∗p < .01,

∗∗∗p < .001.

Note. Adjusted R ² = .12 for Step 1; ΔR ² = .46 for Step 2 (ps < .001); ΔR ² = .03 for Step 3 (p < .01).

∗∗∗p < .001,

∗∗p < .01,

∗p < .05.

⁵Deaths due to suicide did not represent a large enough group for separate statistical comparison; however, results of analyses that combined suicide and homicide deaths compared to other types of loss did not differ from the pattern reported above.