Waves of grief in daily life after loss: Two experience sampling studies

Background: Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) oMers the unique opportunity to examine if prolonged grief disorder (PGD) reactions go up and down in daily life after loss. This is relevant for oMering personalized bereavement care. For this, however, brief and valid ESM items are needed that assess these waves of grief. Method: Study 1: 169 recently bereaved adults (83% woman, aged 54 years on average, 48% spousal loss, 80% died due to illness, on average 5 months earlier) completed 11 ESM-PGD items five times daily for 14 days. Psychometric properties of ESM-PGD items were examined using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and root-mean square of successive diMerences (RMSSD). Study 2: 288 bereaved adults (80% woman, aged 51 years on average, 46% spousal or child loss, 75% died due to illness, on average 3 years<br/>earlier) completed the same ESM-PGD items using the same sampling scheme. Latent profile analyses were conducted using person-specific ESM-PGD item mean, standard deviation, inertia, and RMSSD.<br/>Results: Study 1: The one-factor model showed the best fit, though not all ESM-PGD items captured fluctuations in PGD symptoms. The ‘Yearning’ and ‘Sadness’ items performed best. Study 2: Five subgroups emerged: moderate PDG/low inertia/moderate fluctuation (46%), moderate PDG/low inertia/high fluctuation (20%), low PGD/low inertia/low fluctuation (19%), high PDG/low inertia/low fluctuation (8%), and low PDG/high inertia/low fluctuation (7%).<br/>Discussion: A valid 2-item set for assessing PGD in daily life has been developed that facilitates ESM-research on PGD.