Profiles of grief, post-traumatic stress, and post-traumatic growth among people bereaved due to COVID-19

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic and loss-related information of participants (N = 422)^a–d

Variable	M/n	SD/%
Age	32.73	9.31
Gender
Male	234	55.5%
Female	188	44.5%
Education
Junior secondary school and/or below	21	5.0%
Senior secondary school	66	15.6%
College	320	75.8%
Postgraduate and/or above	15	3.6%
Religious belief
No	395	93.6%
Yes^a	27	6.4%
Marital status
Unmarried	107	25.4%
Married	308	73.0%
Divorced	7	1.7%
Role of deceased
Partner	139	32.9%
Child	24	5.7%
Parent	97	23.0%
Grandparent	69	16.4%
Relative^b	22	5.2%
Friend	64	15.2%
Other^c	7	1.7%
Age of deceased	47.81	21.55
Gender of deceased
Male	207	49.1%
Female	215	50.9%
Time since loss in months	5.10	1.72
Cause of death
COVID-19	408	96.7%
COVID-19 related complication^d	14	3.3%
Unexpectedness of death	3.67	1.23
Traumatic level of loss	3.86	0.97
Closeness with deceased	4.15	0.88
Conflict with deceased	1.76	1.11

M: Mean; SD: Standard Deviation.

^aReligious belief included Buddhism (n = 17), Taoism (n = 3), Catholicism (n = 3), Christianism (n = 3), and Islamism (n = 1).

^bRelative included uncle (n = 5), aunt (n = 4), cousin (n = 4), grandaunt (n = 3), granduncle (n = 1), great grandmother (n = 1), and not specified (n = 4).

^cOther relationship included colleagues (n = 4), acquaintance (n = 2), and not specified (n = 1).

^dCOVID-19 related complication included heart disease (n = 2), fever (n = 2), acute respiratory distress syndrome (n = 1), asthma (n = 1), cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (n = 1), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 1), diabetes (n = 1), high blood pressure (n = 1), liver cancer (n = 1), lung cancer (n = 1), obesity (n = 1), and respiratory failure (n = 1).

Table 2. Parameters of LPA models with 1 to 5 classes^a,b

N of classes	AIC^a	aBIC^a	C1^a	C2	C3	C4	C5	Entropy	Posterior probabilities	LMR-LRT^a,b	BLRT^a,b
1	73557.268	73653.153	422
2	68969.593	69114.292	220	202				0.957	.992, .986	***	***
3	67294.915	67488.428	106	191	125			0.960	.995, .975, .982	*	***
4	66118.083	66360.410	45	85	178	114		0.969	.985, .988, .980, .989		***
5	65481.315	65772.456	77	44	173	14	114	0.971	.984, .986, .983, .998, .982		***

^aAIC: Akaike Information Criteria; aBIC: sample-size-adjusted Bayesian Information Criteria; C_n: size of the n^th group; LMR-LRT: Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted LRT test; BLRT: Bootstrapped Likelihood Ratio Test.

^b*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Figure 1. Symptom profiles in the 4-class model

IPGDS: International Prolonged Grief Disorder Scale; PCL-5: PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; PTGI: Posttraumatic Growth Inventory.

Table 3. Between class differences in prolonged grief, post-traumatic stress, and post-traumatic growth^a

	IPGDS	PCL-5	PTGI
Class 1	32.71 (7.65)	19.84 (8.90)	38.09 (12.25)
Class 2	34.67 (8.36)	19.57 (8.04)	73.78 (10.73)
Class 3	45.72 (6.42)	40.43 (8.33)	57.91 (11.28)
Class 4	55.02 (4.69)	56.43 (7.34)	79.47 (7.75)
F^a	208.86***	462.15***	219.91***
Post hoc tests	1 = 2 < 3 < 4	1 = 2 < 3 < 4	1 < 3 < 2 < 4

IPGDS: International Prolonged Grief Disorder Scale; PCL-5: PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; PTGI: Posttraumatic Growth Inventory.

^a*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 4. Results (unstandardized beta) of logistic regressions using the 3-step procedure^a

Model		Age of the deceased^a	Closeness^a	Partner^a	Conflicts^a	Cause of Death^a
Models with one predictor	n	422	422	422	422	422
	Reference: Resilience
	Growth	.009	.373	.571	−.624**	−.949
	Moderate-combined	.009	.58**	1.371**	.087	1.023
	High-combined	.009	.941***	1.615**	.299	18.668***
	Reference: Growth
	Moderate-combined	−.022***	.207	.799*	.711***	1.972**
	High-combined	−.025***	.568**	1.043**	.923***	19.617***
	Reference: Moderate-combined
	High-combined	−.003	.361*	.244	.211*	17.645***
Models with all predictors	n	422	422	422	422	422
	Reference: Resilience
	Growth	.011	.288	.9	−.674**	−1.314
	Moderate-combined	−.005	.47**	1.055*	.044	.401
	High-combined	−.004	.837***	1.086*	.263	17.596***
	Reference: Growth
	Moderate-combined	−.015*	.182	.155	.718**	1.715*
	High-combined	−.015	.549**	.185	.937***	18.91***
	Reference: Moderate-combined
	High-combined	.001	.367*	.031	.219*	17.195***

^a*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, S. T. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.