Abstract
Grief responses range from minimal changes in functioning to profound dysfunction, or complicated grief. The purpose of the current study was to clarify the relationship between situational, interpersonal, and intrapersonal risk factors, coping strategies, and grief outcomes (complicated grief, disability) among bereaved individuals who had lost a loved one within the past six months to two years (N = 304; 58.2% male; M age = 33.49, SD = 9.98, range 20-81). Situational risk factors (expectedness of the death, history of previous losses, time since loss) were not associated with grief outcomes. Intrapersonal risk factors (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, negative affect, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, psychoticism) were associated with grief outcomes; however, gender and race/ethnicity were not associated with grief outcomes. Interpersonal risk factors (relationship to the deceased, socially supportive coping) were associated with grief outcomes; however, perceived social support was not associated with grief outcomes. Coping Strategies (problem focused coping, avoidant coping) were associated with grief outcomes. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of personality and coping in grief outcomes and should be an area of focus in treatment of grief outcomes.