Beyond bereavement support group meetings: exploring outside social contacts among the members.

This article examines the extent to which bereavement support group participants engage in social interaction with fellow group members outside of the meetings, demographic influences on outside contact, and the relationship between this social interaction and bereavement outcomes. Data are presented from a longitudinal study that included 144 recently bereaved spouses between the ages of 51 and 89 who participated in a support group intervention. During the course of the study the majority of the participants had contact with other group members in addition to the scheduled meetings even though the group leaders did not encourage outside contact. Although the frequency of the interaction was only moderate, the support group participants reported feeling relatively close to their fellow group members. Men were as likely as women to have outside contact but they delayed in doing so. Those who engaged in outside contact were slightly more depressed, experienced more stress, and were more lonely at the time of the contact relative to others. Those who maintained some kind of interaction by Time 3 (1 year bereaved), however, reported less loneliness by the end of the study (Time 4). Findings are discussed in terms of the frequency and duration of support group interventions, the gender composition of the groups, and the need to incorporate into future studies a more systematic examination of outside interaction among support group participants.