Prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric validation of criteria proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11.

Background: Bereavement is a universal experience, and its association with excess morbidity and mortality is well established. Nevertheless, grief becomes a serious health concern for a relative few. For such individuals, intense grief persists, is distressing and disabling, and may meet criteria as a distinct mental disorder.

The time course of grief reactions to spousal loss: evidence from a national probability sample.

Most studies of widowhood have focused on reactions during the first few years postloss. The authors investigated whether widowhood had more enduring effects using a nationally representative U.S.

Resilient or at risk? A 4-year study of older adults who initially showed high or low distress following conjugal loss.

Following conjugal loss, some people show relatively little distress for the first several months, whereas others show considerable distress. In this article we examine these patterns over a 4-year period. Drawing on prior research defining grief trajectories, we conducted repeated measures analyses of variance on data from 92 bereaved elders with one preloss and three postloss assessments.

Prospective patterns of resilience and maladjustment during widowhood.

Using prospective longitudinal data on an older sample beginning prior to the death of a spouse, G. A. Bonanno et al.

Resilience to loss and chronic grief: a prospective study from preloss to 18-months postloss.

The vast majority of bereavement research is conducted after a loss has occurred. Thus, knowledge of the divergent trajectories of grieving or their antecedent predictors is lacking. This study gathered prospective data on 205 individuals several years prior to the death of their spouse and at 6- and 18-months postloss.

The effect of widowhood on older adults' social participation: an evaluation of activity, disengagement, and continuity theories.

Purpose: This study evaluated how levels of social participation change as a result of late-life widowhood. Social participation is a multidimensional construct incorporating both formal (e.g.