Grief dynamics in daily lives of parents and their children: An ecological momentary assessment study
Method stream: Longitudinal Intensive Methods
EC's: 14EC
Approximately 140 million children worldwide face the death of a parent and even more loose a sibling. Prolonged grief disorder is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders after the death of a loved one. One in ten bereaved children is at risk of prolonged grief. Similar prolonged grief disorder rates have been found in bereaved adults.
Prolonged grief disorder has only recently been recognized as a serious mental disorder in the two most commonly used classification systems in psychiatry. Prolonged grief entered the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) in 2022 and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2018. It is characterized by persistent separation distress (e.g., “Preoccupation with thoughts or memories of the person who you have lost”) and cognitive, behavioral, and emotion symptoms (e.g., “Intense loneliness as a result of the loss”). Symptoms of prolonged grief are distinct from posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms. Prolonged grief is diagnosable in children 6 months post-loss when symptoms are so intense that they disrupt functioning in daily life. Without treatment, prolonged grief severity remains relatively stable and therefore may continue to negatively impact children’s functioning.
Research on (mechanisms of) prolonged grief has mainly focused on adult populations. In comparison, there is limited research focusing on bereaved children (age <18). Family life after loss takes place in everyday life. To fully understand family life, fine-grained research methods are needed. Current grief research is, however, dominated by retrospectively recalling experiences, e.g., during the past week. This is prone to recall bias and lacks the ability to study how grief unfolds in daily life. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), also called experience sampling, is a fine-gained longitudinal data-collection method and an ecologically valid way to measure prolonged grief in daily life. In EMA-research, people are asked to complete a brief set of questions multiple times per day usually on their phone.
Recent work shows that EMA is acceptable and feasible to study the fluctuating and context-dependent nature of prolonged grief in adults. Yet, it remains to be examined what mechanisms play a role in moment-to-moment changes in grief in adults and children. The main aim of this project is to examine (mechanisms of) grief in bereaved parents and their children.
This aim can be achieved by asking parent-child dyads, who are cohabiting and whose household member (human not pet) died at least 6 months earlier, to complete a brief set of questions multiple times per day on their phone for four weeks. We focused on children aged at least 12. At the start and at the end of the EMA-phase, surveys are completed by parents and children using telephone-interviews regarding symptom intensity of prolonged grief, PTSD, and depression levels. For your thesis, you can work with the survey-data that are collected at the start and/or end of the EMA-phase, but it is also possible to work with the EMA-data in case you are interested in that.
Two students can work on this project together. Your thesis will be written on existing data.
Students can work on this project in the academic year 2025/2026.
References
Alvis, L., Zhang, N., Sandler, I. N., & Kaplow, J. B. (2022). Developmental Manifestations of Grief in Children and Adolescents: Caregivers as Key Grief Facilitators. Journal of child & adolescent trauma, 16(2), 447–457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00435-0
Lenferink, L. I. M., van Eersel, J. H. W., & Franzen, M. (2022). Is it acceptable and feasible to measure prolonged grief disorder symptoms in daily life using experience sampling methodology? Comprehensive psychiatry, 119, 152351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2022.152351
Lundorff M, Holmgren H, Zachariae R, Farver-Vestergaard I, O'Connor M. (2017). Prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in adult bereavement: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord, 212, 138-149. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.01.030.
Myin-Germeys, I., Kasanova, Z., Vaessen, T., Vachon, H., Kirtley, O., Viechtbauer, W., & Reininghaus, U. (2018). Experience sampling methodology in mental health research: new insights and technical developments. World psychiatry, 17(2), 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20513