Abstract

In view of the mounting death toll of COVID-19 worldwide and the complicating circumstances that commonly accompany such losses, we studied the grief experiences of 209 adult mourners who lost a loved one to coronavirus with a focus on self-blaming emotions and unresolved issues with the deceased. We found universal endorsement of one or more forms of self-blame (guilt, regret, shame) or unfinished business (UB), with over one-third of mourners endorsing all four experiences. Those having a closer relationship to the deceased reported both greater distress over UB and more intense and dysfunctional grief symptomatology. Strikingly, unresolved conflict, a major dimension of UB, accounted for nearly 40% of the unique variance in problematic grief, which bore no relation to time since the loss.

摘要

鉴于全球 COVID-19 的死亡人数不断增加，以及此类损失通常伴随的复杂情况，我们研究了 209 名因冠状病毒而失去亲人的成年哀悼者的悲痛经历，重点是自责情绪和未解决的问题死者。我们发现普遍认可一种或多种形式的自责（内疚、遗憾、羞耻）或未完成的事情（UB），超过三分之一的哀悼者认可这四种经历。那些与死者关系更密切的人报告说，对 UB 的痛苦更大，并且更强烈和功能失调的悲伤症状。引人注目的是，未解决的冲突是 UB 的一个主要维度，占问题悲伤的独特差异的近 40%，自失去以来与时间无关。