Effects of membership in bereavement support groups on adaptation to conjugal bereavement

Abstract

Examined the contribution of membership in bereavement support groups (BSGs) to bereavement adaptation in a sample of 127 widows and widowers, 37 of whom participated in BSGs, during the first 18 months of their bereavement. Both BSG members and nonmembers exhibited significant declines in depression, anger, anxiety, subjective stress, and psychotropic medication usage over the 18-month course. Multiple regression analyses revealed that neither group membership nor level of group involvement was associated with significantly greater declines in these variables, after demographic variables, initial levels of distress, and levels of perceived social support were accounted for. In further exploratory analyses, however, the number of BSG meetings attended accounted for significant amounts of variance in levels of anger and psychotropic medication usage and interacted with perceived social support in accounting for variance in subjective stress. The extent to which these findings call into question common assumptions regarding the efficacy of BSGs and implications for future research are discussed.