Narrating ambiguous loss: deficiencies in narrative processing and negative appraisal of consequences
- Objective: To compare narrative coping with physical and psychological ambiguous loss (AL) and definite loss in terms of distancing (vs. narrative immersion), meaning-making, and subjective biographical consequences. Methods: Thirty adults who had lost a parent to death, to going missing, or to Alzheimer disease (N = 90, 67 females; mean age 36.73 years, SD = 7.27; mean time since loss 9.0 years) narrated two loss-related and three control memories. Results: Individuals with AL were not more immersed in the loss experience, but less successful in finding meaning and in evaluating the loss and its consequences positively compared to those with a definite loss. These group differences were not due to differences in depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and protracted grief. Conclusions: Ambiguity of loss renders meaning-making and coherently narrating loss more difficult, leading to more negative affect, suggesting interventions that help narrating loss coherently in a self-accepting way.
Author: | Manxia Huang, Tilmann HabermasORCiDGND |
---|---|
URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-620998 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23146 |
ISSN: | 1097-4679 |
Parent Title (English): | Journal of clinical psychology |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Place of publication: | Bognor Regis [u.a.] |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2021/05/18 |
Date of first Publication: | 2021/05/18 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2021/08/25 |
Tag: | ambiguous loss; autobiographical reasoning; grief; meaning-making; narrative |
Volume: | 2021 |
Issue: | online version of record before inclusion in an issue |
Page Number: | 20 |
First Page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 20 |
Note: | The Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). Grant Number: CUG2106119 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 489231306 |
Institutes: | Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit | |
Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 4.0 |