Perceived closeness to the deceased and its predictive effect on the development of prolonged grief disorder and suicidality among bereaved college students

• Main Author: Rings, Jeffrey A
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Clinical psychology; Mental health; School counseling
• ISBN: 9781109361711; 1109361718

A growing percentage of college students are experiencing severe and debilitating psychological problems (Caulfield, 2000; Douce, 2004; Kitzrow, 2003). Despite being a commonly-encountered stressor among undergraduates (Currier et al., 2006), the occurrence of bereavement is addressed rarely among the college mental health literature. However, bereavement has been shown to lead to increased suicidality and other problematic mental health symptoms (Prigerson, Bridge et al., 1999). Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), a newly-defined mental health diagnosis, has been found to be a more accurate indicator of poorer mental health functioning among bereaved individuals than other mental health conditions (Silverman et al., 2000). Some research suggests that the level of perceived emotional closeness felt toward the deceased is of great importance when assessing one's grief response (Archer, 1999; Cleiren, 1993). This study explored the relationship between perceived closeness to the deceased, PGD, and suicidality. The Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM; Starzyk et al., 2006) was used to quantitatively assess perceived closeness. Bereaved undergraduates from a large college in the Western United States were asked to assess their levels of prolonged grief symptomotology, suicidality, and perceived closeness to a deceased person of their choosing. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between these variables. The results indicate that perceived closeness to the deceased accounted for a significant amount of the variance in PGD symptom severity, but not suicidality. The results also suggest that suicidality should be assessed in addition to, and separately from, PGD in order to avoid overlooking those who do not meet the criteria for PGD yet who are suicidal nonetheless. Additional clinical implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are addressed.