How reminiscing about deceased close others together with continuing bonds relates to grief severity and personal growth: a cross-sectional study with bereaved adults

Abstract

Objectives

One of the reasons why people engage in reminiscences about their past is to maintain intimacy with deceased close others. Although previous research alerts to the negative effects of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance on mental health, little is known about its relation to individuals’ reactions to loss (i.e. grief severity and personal growth). In two samples, we focus on time since loss and continuing bonds, to elucidate the role of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance in grief.

Method

The samples comprised 111 and 198 bereaved adults. All participants rated the frequency of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance and loss-related variables, such as time since loss, continuing bonds, and grief severity. Sample 2 additionally completed measures of personal growth, loss-centrality, and their interconnectedness with the deceased.

Results

Reminiscence on intimacy maintenance was positively related to grief severity. This relation was independent of time since loss and partly driven by externalized bonds. Internalized bonds mediated the relation between reminiscence for intimacy maintenance and grief severity (in sample 1) and personal growth (in sample 2).

Conclusion

Continuing bonds help explain why reminiscing for intimacy maintenance can be harmful in terms of grief severity but also fosters personal growth after the loss.

Keywords:

• Autobiographical memory
• grief
• intimacy maintenance
• personal growth
• continuing bonds

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 Data of the second study have recently been used to examine the associations between personal reminiscence styles (i.e. ruminative and reflective) and adaptation to bereavement (see Wolf & Pociunaite, 2023).

2 At the time of data collection, approval by the ethical board of Ulm University (Ulm, Germany) was not required for studies in which data collection was completely anonymous. Data was collected online. Participants were provided with detailed information about the study participation and data protection. They could only participate after giving their consent (opt-in approach). Data collection was anonymous.

3 In order to understand the role of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance in grief, we not only tested for a linear association but also for a quadratic effect of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance on grief severity. In both samples, a stepwise regression analyses revealed, that this association was better described by a linear (sample 1: β = .569, p < .001, R² = .32; sample 2: β = .593, p < .001, R² = .32) than a quadratic effect (sample 1: β = .169, p < .05, ΔR² = .03; sample 2: β = .062, p = .35, ΔR² = .003).

4 In sample 2, we reran the mediation model without any covariates in order to compare findings obtained in both samples. Indeed, in this model, we replicated the pattern found in sample 1: indirect effect of reminiscence for intimacy maintenance on grief severity was significant via both externalized (standardized coeff = 0.15, 95% CI [0.06, 0.24]) and internalized continuing bonds (standardized coeff = 0.15, 95% CI [0.03, 0.27]) as was the direct effect (standardized coeff = 0.27, p ≤ .001) implying that externalized and internalized continuing bonds partially mediate the relation between reminiscence for intimacy maintenance and grief severity.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.