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Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework

A review of the literature on adaptation to bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted to assess the current state of knowledge. Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were searched for studies published during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. 44 articles were in...

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Autores principales: Stroebe, Margaret, Schut, Henk
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7756059/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33086903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030222820966928
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author Stroebe, Margaret
Schut, Henk
author_facet Stroebe, Margaret
Schut, Henk
author_sort Stroebe, Margaret
collection PubMed
description A review of the literature on adaptation to bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted to assess the current state of knowledge. Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were searched for studies published during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. 44 articles were included in the review. Narrative synthesis showed that knowledge was largely based on expert assessments of prior bereavement research and professional experience; there is so far absence of empirical evidence linking features of COVID-19 bereavement situations to health outcomes. Severe negative consequences have been consistently predicted by authors. There is still relatively little consideration of positive or compensatory processes or the possibility that these could alleviate the effect of the shocking, traumatic circumstances. With two notable exceptions, there has been lack of attention to the role of theoretical models for guiding research and practice. A theoretical perspective (the Dual Process Model, DPM) was applied to the information derived from the available articles. Two features of the DPM framework illustrated its relevance: 1. It enables systematic assessment of the range of loss- and restoration-related challenges for the bereaved; 2. It speaks for extension of psychotherapeutic intervention to manage secondary, restoration- as well as primary, loss-oriented stressors; studies have demonstrated that this may increase the effectiveness of intervention. Directions for future research and DPM application are suggested.
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spelling pubmed-77560592021-01-08 Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework Stroebe, Margaret Schut, Henk Omega (Westport) Articles A review of the literature on adaptation to bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic was conducted to assess the current state of knowledge. Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were searched for studies published during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. 44 articles were included in the review. Narrative synthesis showed that knowledge was largely based on expert assessments of prior bereavement research and professional experience; there is so far absence of empirical evidence linking features of COVID-19 bereavement situations to health outcomes. Severe negative consequences have been consistently predicted by authors. There is still relatively little consideration of positive or compensatory processes or the possibility that these could alleviate the effect of the shocking, traumatic circumstances. With two notable exceptions, there has been lack of attention to the role of theoretical models for guiding research and practice. A theoretical perspective (the Dual Process Model, DPM) was applied to the information derived from the available articles. Two features of the DPM framework illustrated its relevance: 1. It enables systematic assessment of the range of loss- and restoration-related challenges for the bereaved; 2. It speaks for extension of psychotherapeutic intervention to manage secondary, restoration- as well as primary, loss-oriented stressors; studies have demonstrated that this may increase the effectiveness of intervention. Directions for future research and DPM application are suggested. SAGE Publications 2020-10-21 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7756059/ /pubmed/33086903 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030222820966928 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Stroebe, Margaret
Schut, Henk
Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title_full Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title_fullStr Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title_full_unstemmed Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title_short Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework
title_sort bereavement in times of covid-19: a review and theoretical framework
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7756059/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33086903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030222820966928
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