Prolonged Grief in Young Bereaved Spouses and Partners

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center60 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of the research is to learn more about the experience of grief in young bereaved spouses/partners. Recent research has shown that young bereaved spouses/partners experience grief uniquely from other age groups, but it is still unclear how certain factors affect the experience of grief. The investigators research team is interested in studying how the psychological factors of trauma, personality, and meaning of the loss affect grief reactions in young spouses/partners after the loss of a spouse to cancer.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

Conditions

Grief

Interventions

in-person or telephone interviewBEHAVIORAL

Participants will be administered one battery of questionnaires that should take 50- 55 minutes, which may be broken down into two or more segments if necessary. They may choose to have these questionnaires administered to them in person at the hospital, in person at their home, or via telephone by a trained master's level research assistant.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 20 YearsMax age: 49 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Participants must be at least 20 years old and no older than 49 years and 11 months old. * Participants must have lost a spouse/domestic partner to cancer 6 months to 3 years earlier. * Participants must be able to give informed consent. * Participants must be able to comprehend English to complete study assessments. Exclusion Criteria: * Major psychopathology or cognitive impairment likely in the judgment of the research staff to interfere with the participation or completion of the protocol.

Locations (2)

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

New York, New York, United States

Calavery Hospital

The Bronx, New York, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

To determine the rate and levels of prolonged grief in young bereaved spouses/partners of cancer patients

Time frame: conclusion of the study

Secondary Outcomes

To determine associations among prolonged grief, personality characteristics , previous trauma, & subjective meanings of the loss to the bereaved spouse in young bereaved spouses/partners of cancer

Time frame: conclusion of the study

To evaluate whether unique themes emerge among those reporting prolonged grief

Time frame: conclusion of the study

To evaluate whether unique themes emerge among those reporting obsessive and histrionic personality traits

Time frame: conclusion of the study

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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