Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Cottrell, Catherine
Area of Concentration
Psychology
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between bereaved individuals’ use of symbolic memorial objects to continue bonds, and how afterlife belief, attachments, perceived closeness, and relationship attributes, might relate to symbolic memorial object use as a form of bond continuation—and how this form of bond continuation paired with afterlife belief, may mitigate, or contribute to the development of complicated grief. Afterlife belief, in particular, is overlooked in continuing bonds literature. In an online questionnaire, participants (N = 401) completed a novel scale of the keeping of symbolic memorial objects, relationship attributes, and afterlife belief, along with measures of: attachment, closeness, and complicated grief. In all, 94.4% of the sample used symbolic memorial objects. Findings suggest that symbolic memorial object use, closeness, afterlife belief, and insecure-anxious attachments all significantly, positively relate to higher levels of complicated grief. Understanding how afterlife belief functions in this area, may lead to findings with clinical applications to treat complicated grief—which is important, due to the increased amounts of deaths, globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recommended Citation
Kreis, Lila, "WHERE DO THE DECEASED GO, AND SHOULD I LET GO?: AN EXAMINATION OF AFTERLIFE BELIEF, ATTACHMENTS, CLOSENESS, & THE UTILITY OF SYMBOLIC MEMORIAL OBJECTS FOR THE BEREAVED AND THEIR GRIEF OUTCOMES" (2021). Theses & ETDs. 6084.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6084