The purpose of this proposed study is to contribute to the prevention of depression, as well as other, related mental and physical sequelae of bereavement identified with pathological grief. Toward this end, this project focuses on bereaved spouses of cancer patients who either received hospice care or conventional care and has as its specific aims increased understanding of the bereavement process and knowledge about the extent to which hospice care and participation by spouses in mutual support groups has a beneficial effect on the course and outcome of the bereavement process. The study also has a secondary objective of clarifying the nature of anticipatory grief through the development of a self- report inventory designed to measure it, and the investigation of is role in the bereavement process. Both the course and the outcome of bereavement recovery will be assessed at four points over an 18-month period, comparing (a) subjects whose spouses who received hospice care with subjects whose spouses did not received hospice care, and (b) subjects in the former group who participated in mutual support groups with those who did not. A structured interview and a variety of measures of various aspects of mental and physical health will be used to assess the temporal course and outcome of bereavement. This study will be conducted with the cooperation of a number of hospice programs in the Baltimore area which will serve as the sources of subjects. Additional subjects, whose spouses did not receive hospice care, will be obtained through solicitations of participation to spouses of cancer patients who had been patients at Union Memorial Hospital of Baltimore.
| Levy, L H; Derby, J F; Martinkowski, K S (1993) Effects of membership in bereavement support groups on adaptation to conjugal bereavement. Am J Community Psychol 21:361-81 |
| Levy, L H; Derby, J F (1992) Bereavement support groups: who joins;who does not;and why. Am J Community Psychol 20:649-62 |
| Levy, L H (1991) Anticipatory grief: its measurement and proposed reconceptualization. Hosp J 7:1-28 |
