Grief Trajectories in Men and Women: A Linear Mixed Model Approach

Gender differences in grief expression have been widely studied, yet findings remain inconsistent. Some research reports higher grief intensity in women, while others find no difference. Two possible explanations are: (a) the neglect of third variables interacting with gender, and (b) men and women follow distinct grief trajectories. This study employed an observational longitudinal design to examine both hypotheses using data from Canada, Belgium and Spain. A total of 1328 bereaved adults were assessed between two and five times at different post-loss intervals. Sociodemographic, loss-related, grief and psychopathological variables were collected. Linear mixed models identified predictors of grief symptomatology and compared trajectories by gender. Results revealed significant gender differences in grief intensity, even after adjusting for other variables. However, no significant interaction between gender and time was found, indicating that men and women differ in intensity but follow similar grief trajectories. These findings may reflect gendered emotional socialisation: women may be more socially conditioned toward introspection and verbalization, which are more readily detected by standard assessment tools. Conversely, men's grief expression may be underestimated by existing instruments. Methodologically, the underrepresentation of men in grief research and the reliance on tools built on narrow conceptualisations of grief limit generalizability.