The Melbourne Family Grief Study, II: Psychosocial morbidity and grief in bereaved families.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the intensity of grief, the psychosocial morbidity, and the coping patterns in members of families classified according to a typology of family functioning comprising supportive, conflict-resolving, intermediate, sullen, and hostile classes. METHOD: One hundred fifteen families were assessed longitudinally 6 weeks (time 1), 6 months (time 2), and 13 months (time 3) after the death of a parent (constituting 670 individual responses) on measures of grief intensity, psychological state, social adjustment, and family coping. A previously described typology of perceptions of family functioning was applied. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of..