Women's Grief Experiences: The Death of a Close Female Friend

Abstract

Friendship provides women with a plethora of benefits, including reduced physiological and psychological distress (e.g., Martina & Stevens, 2006; Yang et al., 2016). Yet we do not know what happens when women lose their female friends. Previous work conceptualizes friend loss as disenfranchised, which exacerbates grief reactions (Deck & Folta, 1989). Thus, as informed by the individual differences framework of grief reactions (Mancini & Bonanno, 2009), the purpose of this study was to 1) qualitatively describe the bereavement of women who have experienced the death of a close female friend and 2) test an integrative model of grief reactions predicting complicated grief and posttraumatic growth among female friend grievers. For the qualitative portion of the study, seven women were interviewed in three focus groups. Findings from directed content analysis highlighted common grief reactions (e.g., sadness, yearning for their friends), supportive and disenfranchising interactions related to social support, ways of coping (e.g., rituals to stay connect to the deceased), growth after loss, and ongoing challenges after the friend’s death. For the quantitative portion of the study, a path analysis of online survey data obtained from 148 women was conducted using maximum likelihood estimation in Mplus. Analyses suggested that the hypothesized model demonstrated inadequate fit. Modification indices and additional pathways were reviewed for theoretical plausibility, resulting in three additions to the model. The revised final model was a good fit to the data, explaining 55% of the variance in complicated grief and 43% of the variance in post-traumatic growth. Most strikingly, avoidant emotional coping served as a key mediator and predictor of complicated grief, while problem focused coping served as a key mediator and predictor of post-traumatic growth. This has implications for counseling psychologists regarding theory and practice related to bereaved women—in addition to recognizing the significance of female friend grievers’ losses, the results can be used to advance outreach and intervention efforts among disenfranchised grievers.