Grief following pet and human loss: Closeness is key

The authors compared grief severity and its predictors in two equivalent college student samples who had experienced the death of a pet (n = 211) or a person (n = 146) within the past 2 years. The human death sample reported higher grief severity, p < .01, but effect sizes were small (ds = .28-.3...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDeath studies Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 275 - 282
Main Authors Eckerd, Lizabeth M., Barnett, James E., Jett-Dias, Latishia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Routledge 27.05.2016
Taylor & Francis LLC
Subjects
Adaptation, Psychological
Adolescent
Adult
Animals
Bereavement
Bonding, Human-Pet
Death
Female
Grief
Health technology assessment
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Object Attachment
Pets
Psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:The authors compared grief severity and its predictors in two equivalent college student samples who had experienced the death of a pet (n = 211) or a person (n = 146) within the past 2 years. The human death sample reported higher grief severity, p < .01, but effect sizes were small (ds = .28-.30). For both samples, closeness to the deceased was overwhelmingly the strongest predictor of grief severity; other predictors generally dropped out with closeness added to the model. Results highlight the importance of including closeness to deceased in grief research, and its centrality in understanding grief counseling clients.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0748-1187
1091-7683
DOI:10.1080/07481187.2016.1139014