| Popis: |
The death of a loved one is one of the most common potentially traumatic life events (Benjet et al., 2016; Stroebe & Schut, 2007). Around 10% of bereaved people after a natural death (e.g., old age) and 50% after an unnatural death (e.g. traffic accident) develops disabling and persisting grief symptoms that interfere with daily functioning (Djelantik et al., 2020; Lundorff et al., 2017), including prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Yet, relatively little is known about the development of grief over time. Latent trajectory studies can be used to examine differences in the course of grief symptoms over time. Latent trajectory studies are an extension of current research, which is dominated by examining means of symptom-levels or the presence/absence of a psychological disorder. Criteria for PGD were recently included in the text-revision of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR; American Psychological Association [APA], 2022). Therefore, it is important to study PGD trajectories according to the latest DSM-5-TR criteria. Thus far, only one study has examined latent trajectories of PGD symptom-levels based on DSM-5-TR criteria in bereaved people (Pociunaite et al., preprint). In this study, four PGD DSM-5-TR trajectories were identified including 1) a High stable PGD trajectory (i.e., with PGD symptom-levels continuously higher than the cut-off score for PGD, 2) a High PGD quick recovery trajectory (i.e., with initially high PGD levels, which decrease quickly), 3) a High PGD slow recovery trajectory (i.e., characterized by initially high PGD levels that decrease slowly), and 4) a Low PGD symptoms trajectory (i.e., marked by PGD levels continuously below the cut-off for PGD). To our understanding, the current study is the first to examine latent trajectories of PGD DSM-5-TR symptom-levels in people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the presumed high risk for PGD in people who lost a loved one during this pandemic (Reitsma et al., 2023), it is highly relevant to investigate how grief develops over time in this specific population. Accordingly, the first aim of our study is to identify trajectories of PGD DSM-5-TR symptom-levels in a sample of Dutch adults who lost a loved one during the first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our second aim is to identify predictors (i.e., socio-demographic, loss-related, health-related, and trauma exposure characteristics) associated with the different trajectories. |
