“I Changed After the Death”: Symptoms of Psychopathology Predict Lower Agency and Communion Themes in Loss Narratives Over 16 Months

Some individuals struggle to adjust after the death of a close other. Constructing an adaptive narrative about the loss is important to adjustment but symptoms of psychopathology may interfere with this process. We examined whether psychopathology symptoms measured 2 months after the loss of a spouse or parent predicted loss narratives with lower agency and communion themes as well as more negative emotional tone and self-event connections.

Participants included 507 adults from the Aarhus Bereavement Study who completed psychopathology symptom measures at 2, 6, 11, and 18 months after the death of their spouse or parent. Symptom measures included prolonged grief disorder (PGD), PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Eighteen months after the death, participants wrote a narrative about the loss and answered questions about its emotional qualities (i.e., tone, self-event connections). The narratives were content coded for agency and communion themes.

Multiple regressions showed that higher PGD symptoms at 2 months predicted less adaptive loss narratives at 18 months, even after controlling for neuroticism and age.

Individuals who experience high symptom levels are struggling to construct adaptive loss narratives. This may hinder identity changes needed to accommodate their altered life circumstances.