The research plan is to use social support groups to enhance coping resources among bereaved college students and reduce mental and emotional disorders due to unresolved bereavement. The efficacy of the intervention strategy will be measured by testing the main effects and stress buffering hypotheses of social support theory. The conceptual framework developed by Rudolf H. Moos to understand life crises guides the intervention plan. A repeated measures pretest-posttest control group design (a treatment/no treatment control design) will be used. Twelve social support groups each comprised of ten bereaved undergraduates will be seen between August 1990 and November 1991. Each support group will bc eight sessions in length and be led by a group facilitator. There will be a total of 120 treatment subjects, 120 bereaved undergraduates who serve as one set of controls and 120 non-bereaved undergraduates who serve as another set of controls. Each support group session will last two hours, will be devoted to educating about coping skills and adaptive tasks, to sharing personal experiences, and to developing adaptive strategies. The group facilitator will present the material and help the undergraduate focused on discussing their loss and their means of dealing with it. Measures will be collected on all treatment and control group subjects several times. On treatment and control group subjects who enter the study in August 1990, data will be collected six times over an 18-month period; on subjects who enter the study in January 1991 data will be collected five times over a 12-month period. In subjects who enter in August 1991, data will be collected four times over a 6-month period. Effects of bereavement will be measured in terms of changes over time in distress, grief reactions, and intrapsychic processes. Following the advice of social support researchers, both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered to obtain valuable perspectives on the dynamics of social support and on individual coping styles in response to bereavement. Statistical analyses of data will include ANOVA, analysis of covariance, multiple regression analysis, and factor analysis. The design represents a marked advance over much bereavement research because of its prospective nature, use of multiple measures and multiple data collection points, inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative data, use of control groups, and tests to assess an intervention designed to assist in the management of bereavement. The study's longitudinal data will enable the trajectories of bereavement to be compared for bereaved undergraduates given social support and a comparable group not given this intervention.
| Balk, D E; Lampe, S; Sharpe, B et al. (1998) TAT results in a longitudinal study of bereaved college students. Death Stud 22:3-21 |
| Balk, D E; Vesta, L C (1998) Psychological development during four years of bereavement: a longitudinal case study. Death Stud 22:23-41 |
