This investigation explored the relationship between two aspects of meaning in life, presence of meaning in life and search for meaning in life, and the fear of death and dying in young adults. A community sample of participants ("N" = 168) completed measures of meaning in life and death anxiety. A multivariate analysis of variance was…

Bereavement and its accompanying psychological response (grief) constitute potent experiences that necessitate the reorganization of cognitive-affective representations of lost significant attachment figures during both wakefulness and dreaming. The goals of this preliminary study were to explore whether the dream content of 77 adults with…

Despite its high sensitivity, the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) has demonstrated low specificity, has an ambiguous factor structure, and includes inadequate items. The current study examined the psychometric properties of a modified BHS (mBHS) using a Likert scale format that would allow for improved reliability, validity, and clinical utility.…

This study examined the relationships between hope and the emotional reactions of bereaved Chinese people in Hong Kong. Three groups--a clinical bereaved sample (n = 140), a general bereaved sample (n = 152), and a non-bereaved comparison sample (n = 144)--were included. Significant differences in 3 hope measures, hope (pathway), hope (agency) and…

Response to the death of a spouse was examined by focusing on acceptance, which was conceptualized as both a process and an outcome. Grounded theory was applied to analyze the experience of 15 bereaved Hong Kong Chinese older adults. The main theme that emerged was time. Acceptance of spousal death was found to be related to the search for meaning…

The present study validated the use of the Korean version of the Reasons for Living Inventory for Adolescents (KRFL-A) in a group of 406 South Korean high school students. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the original 5-factor structure, and other psychometric properties demonstrated the usefulness of the KRFL-A as a measure of cognitive…

This study explores the bereavement process and continuing bond in Pakistani Muslims with the focus on how culture and religion influence these processes. Ten participants were interviewed and their transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main domains were identified from the narratives expressed by the…

Two studies explored the connection between self-consciousness and death cognitions. In Study 1 (n = 56), a positive association was found between accessibility of death-related thoughts and the ruminative dimension of self-consciousness. In Study 2 (n = 212), a mortality salience induction led to higher validation of cultural worldviews (a more…

Friendship factors have been implicated in adolescent suicidality, but this relationship has not been verified across ethnicities. This study examined suicidality and friendship problems (i.e., social isolation, poor friendship quality, friends' school disconnection, and friends' delinquency) among Mexican American adolescents, an understudied,…

Although the role of spiritual, psychological, and social factors is receiving increasing attention in the end of life (EOL) context, we know far less than we need to about how these factors shape attitudes toward life and death in the face of looming loss. The present study begins to remedy these limitations by examining the relative impact of…

This study identifies grief management strategies that bereaved adults evaluate as more and less helpful, assesses whether the person centeredness of these strategies explains their helpfulness, and determines whether strategy helpfulness varies as a function of demographic, personality, and situational factors. Participants (105 bereaved young…

Previous research suggests that caregivers and terminally ill patients face substantial difficulties discussing illness and death. Existing research, however, has focused primarily on the experience of patients. The current study compared responses as well as the relative strength of association between mortality communication, fear of death, and…

The associations between risk-taking, hopelessness, and reasons for living were explored in a sample of 312 Italian students. Respondents completed the Physical Risk Assessment Inventory, the Physical Risk-Taking Behavior Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Reasons for Living Inventory. Students with lower scores on the Reasons for…

Severe grief symptoms, treatment receptivity, attitudes about grief, and stigmatization concerns were assessed in a community-based sample of 135 widowed participants in the Yale Bereavement Study. There was a statistically significant association between the severity of grief symptoms and reported negative reactions from friends and family…

A sample of 196 participants (mean age 45.94 years, 54% women) completed inventories assessing upward and downward positive and negative social comparisons and general well-being. Widows and widowers were higher on upward negative comparisons than divorced or married persons while being lower on well-being measures of life satisfaction and…