Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, Claverton Down, UK.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Omega (Westport). 2020 Aug;81(3):370-392. doi: 10.1177/0030222820919253. Epub 2020 May 3.
Funeral services are known to serve multiple functions for bereaved persons. There is also a common, intuitively reasonable assumption of positive associations between engaging in funeral activities and adjustment to bereavement. We examined whether restricting ceremonial cremation arrangements to a minimum has a negative association with grief over time. Bereaved persons in the United Kingdom completed questionnaires 2 to 5 months postloss and again a year later ( = 233 with complete data; dropout = 11.4%). Neither type nor elaborateness of the cremation service, nor satisfaction with arrangements (typically high), emerged as significantly related to grief; no major subgroup differences (e.g., according to income level) were found. Results suggested that it does not matter to grief whether a more minimalistic or elaborate funeral ceremony was observed. We concluded that the funeral industry represented in this investigation is offering bereaved people the range of choices regarding cremation arrangements to meet their needs. Limits to generalizability are discussed.
葬礼服务被认为对丧亲者具有多种功能。人们还普遍认为，参与葬礼活动与适应丧亲之间存在积极的关联。我们研究了将仪式火化安排限制在最低限度是否会随着时间的推移与悲伤产生负面关联。英国的丧亲者在丧亲后 2 至 5 个月和一年后（ = 233 名有完整数据；流失率 = 11.4%）完成了问卷调查。火化服务的类型和复杂程度，以及对安排的满意度（通常很高）都与悲伤没有明显的关系；没有发现主要的亚组差异（例如，根据收入水平）。结果表明，观察更简约或复杂的葬礼仪式对悲伤并无影响。我们得出结论，调查中所代表的丧葬行业为丧亲者提供了一系列关于火化安排的选择，以满足他们的需求。讨论了普遍性的局限性。
