Anticipatory Grief Reactions in Family Members of Adult Patients

Abstract

This study investigated the phenomenon of anticipatory grief in family members of adult cancer patients in an acute care setting. Forty-one family members who were coping with all stages of illness as well as a variety of treatment modalities, completed a 12-item questionnaire compiled from Faschingbauer's Texas Inventory of Grief. Subgroups of family members identified as having higher degrees of unresolved grief by way of ANOVA tests included those family member's whose relative received treatment on a specialized oncology unit (p = .02), those who reported a sense of predischarge panic (p = .05) and those who were reporting continued periods of crying at the thought of the family member having cancer (p = .03). Family members of patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation also had higher mean total grief scores compared with other identified subgroups. When a family member had previously lost another relative to cancer, total grief scores were significantly lower (p = .06). In comparing total scores, elderly family members also had lower scores than the other subgroups identified.