Continuing Bonds, Attachment Style, and Adjustment in the Conjugal Bereavement Among Hong Kong Chinese

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of attachment style and continuing bonds, defined as the extent to which a bereaved individual feels that the deceased remains a part of his/her life, on postbereavement adjustment among 71 conjugally bereaved individuals. It was shown that bereaved individuals with an anxious attachment style tended to show more externalized continuing bonds as well as more grief symptoms. An anxious attachment style played a direct and significant role in postbereavement adjustment over and above the contribution of externalized continuing bonds. Interventions to facilitate restoration tasks and to reduce externalized continuing bonds would be discussed.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Earmarked Research Grant of the Research Grant Council (RGC Reference Number: HKU 7428/05H). We thank the Jessie and Thomas Tam Centre, Comfort Care Concern Group, and Haven of Hope Hospital for helping with data collection.

Notes

Note. CB = continuing bonds. N = 71.

*p < .05.

Note. CB = continuing bonds. N = 71. Partial correlation coefficients controlling for religion and mode of death.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Note. N = 71. R² = .03 for Step 1, F(2,68) = .87, p > .05; ΔR² = .30 for Step 2, F(2,66) = 7.83, p < .001.

*p <.05. ***p < .001.