Risk factors and resources in anticipating grief: A review of foreign publications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/Keywords:
anticipating grief, grief before death, risk factors, resources, psychological support in griefAbstract
Introduction. Caring for a relative with a life-threatening illness carries a high risk of maladaptive reactions, including complicated grief. At the same time, anticipatory grief is common among care-givers, which underscores the need for psychological support for families of dying patients. Identifying targets of psychological intervention requires examining both risk factors and resources in the experience of anticipating grief. This article describes the phenomenon of anticipatory grief based on a risk- and resource-based approach, identifying both risk factors and resources in the experience of anticipatory grief.
Materials and Methods. The study is a theoretical analysis of foreign literature over the past 20 years, as indexed in the PubMed database, using the keyword ‘anticipatory grief’.
Results. Anticipatory grief is understood as a set of cognitive, affective, cultural, and social responses to expected death, experienced by the patient and his or her family. The deterioration of the patient’s condition is directly correlated with an increase in anticipatory grief symptoms in relatives, emphasizing the importance of the patient–caregiver relationship. Anticipatory grief is more often considered as a risk factor for the development of complicated grief in relatives following the patient’s death. The occurrence of anticipatory grief in relatives can be influenced by multiple risk factors, including medical, demographic, psychological, social, and existential factors. Significant resources facilitating coping with anticipatory grief include meanings of death, awareness of the inevitability of death, acceptance of one’s caregiver role, social support, and proactive coping strategies that allow one to treat the impending loss not as a threat, but as a psychological challenge.
Conclusions. Risk factors for anticipating grief vary in degree of ‘severity’ and may serve as targets for both awareness and psychotherapeutic work. In this regard, it is important to develop a value attitude towards life, including the narrative of death, in the public consciousness.
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