The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
Unit for Bereavement Research, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 27;14(1):22093. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-72754-9.
Having a traumatic or negative event at the centre of one's identity is associated with adverse psychological outcomes including post-traumatic stress, depression, and prolonged grief disorder (PGD). However, direct investigation of the role of centrality of a bereavement-event in the maintenance of PGD symptoms is scarce and has not compared immediate and long-term changes in event centrality nor examined the nature of the loss. Data from bereaved partners and adult children in The Aarhus Bereavement Study at four time points over 26 months post-loss were included in this study. Participants completed a PGD symptom measure and the Centrality of Events Scale (CES) on each occasion. Results suggest that bereaved partners had higher PGD and CES scores than bereaved adult children at all four post-bereavement time points. Regardless of relationship type, maintaining higher CES scores over time predicted PGD symptoms, over and above initial symptoms. Our findings suggest a risk factor for maintaining PGD symptoms is the continued centrality of the bereavement to ones' life story and autobiographical memory. This finding links the mechanisms for maintaining PGD symptoms to those involved in other disorders such as post-traumatic stress, with implications for theoretical models of prolonged grief as well as treatment.
一个人身份的核心是创伤或负面事件，这与包括创伤后应激障碍、抑郁和延长哀伤障碍（PGD）在内的不良心理后果有关。然而，直接调查丧失事件核心地位在维持 PGD 症状中的作用的研究很少，并且没有比较丧失事件核心地位的即时和长期变化，也没有检查丧失的性质。本研究纳入了奥胡斯丧失研究中丧失伴侣和成年子女在丧失后 26 个月的四个时间点的数据。参与者在每个时间点都完成了 PGD 症状量表和事件核心量表（CES）。结果表明，在所有四个丧失后时间点，丧失伴侣的 PGD 和 CES 评分均高于丧失成年子女。无论关系类型如何，随着时间的推移，CES 评分的持续升高预示着 PGD 症状的维持，超过了初始症状。我们的发现表明，维持 PGD 症状的一个风险因素是丧失对个人生活故事和自传记忆的持续核心地位。这一发现将维持 PGD 症状的机制与其他障碍（如创伤后应激障碍）联系起来，这对延长哀伤障碍的理论模型以及治疗都具有意义。
