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Traditional bereavement theories emphasize that it is crucial to work through the emotional meanings of a loss and that the failure to do so typically results in delayed grief symptoms. This article reports data examining these assumptions prospectively across the first 5 years of bereavement. Based on previous validity data, elevated symptoms were defined in terms of 6-month median scores for each measure. Delayed elevations were observed on isolated measures for 3 (7%) participants. However, these elevations were more parsimoniously explained by random measurement error Furthermore, when a weighted grief-depression composite score was used to maximize the probability of capturing the true (latent) grief variable, not a single case of delayed symptom elevations was observed. Finally, data on emotional processing of the loss at 6 months failed to support the traditional assumption that minimal emotional processing of the loss would lead to delayed grief
Coping with the death of a close friend or relative is often a painful and difficult process. A recent review of the available evidence suggested that interpersonal losses tend to disrupt psychological and physiological functioning in most bereaved individuals for a period of I or 2 years. However, only a relatively small subset of bereaved individuals, usually 15% or less, tend to show more chronic grief reactions (Bonanno & Kaltman, in press). It is important that there also appears to be a sizable minority of bereaved individuals, ranging from 15% to 50%, who show little or no overt disruptions in functioning at any point in bereavement (Bonanno & Kaltman, in press). What are we to make of these individuals? According to traditional bereavement theory, the emotional pain caused by the death of a close friend or relative must be worked through to the point of resolution. Bereaved individuals who fail to exhibit clear signs of grief or of attempting to work through the pain of loss are assumed to be denying its importance and therefore likely to suffer delayed grief reactions (Deutsch, 1937; Horowitz, 1976; Lindemann, 1944; Osterweis, Solomon, & Green, 1984; Parkes & Weiss, 1983; Rando, 1993; Raphael, 1983; Sanders, 1993; Worden, 1991).
Despite its widespread acceptance, the traditional perspective on bereavement and its assumption about the relationship between grief avoidance and delayed grief have generated surprisingly little in...