The Moderating Effects of Previous Losses and Emotional Clarity on Bereavement Outcome

Abstract

The connections between complicated grief and traumatic stress have previously been investigated; however, the learning effects resulting from previous losses and emotional clarity are still unclear. Understanding these effects may shed more light on the general hypotheses of emotional aging. We aimed to assess the moderating effects of emotional clarity and previous losses on bereavement outcomes. This study evaluated 190 participants with a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Inventory of Complicated Grief, the Impact of Event Scale–Revised, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The results confirm that previous losses change the relationship between complicated grief and trauma and that emotional clarity changes the association between previous losses and complicated grief.

KEYWORDS:

• complicated grief
• emotional clarity
• multiple losses
• previous losses
• traumatic stress

Notes

Note. Adjusted R ² = .101 for CG and .007 for PTSD.

**p < .01.

Note. Adjusted R ² = .073.

*p < .005; **p < .01.

*p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sofia I. Castro

Sofia I. Castro is with UnIPSa (Research Unit of Psychology and Health), CESPU, Portugal, and is a clinical psychologist. Her research specializations are clinical and health psychology, emotional regulation, complicated grief, and traumatic stress.

José C. Rocha

José C. Rocha is auxiliar professor of clinical psychology and coordinator of UnIPSa, CESPU, Portugal. His research specializations are narrative psychotherapies, empirical validation of psychological interventions, perinatal losses, traumatic stress, and grief.