Gender Differences in Traumatic Grief Symptom Severity after the Loss of a Spouse

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Boelen ◽  
Jan van den Bout

Gender differences in bereavement outcome have received much attention in bereavement research in the past decades. While many studies have focused on depressive symptomatology and/or normal grief reactions, little attention has been paid to gender differences in symptoms of pathological or traumatic grief (TG). In addition, few studies have investigated gender differences beyond the acute grieving period. In the present study, cross-sectional data were used to explore gender differences in the temporal course of TG symptomatology. Data were derived from 270 spousally bereaved individuals who filled in the Inventory of Traumatic Grief on the Internet. Analyses of variance were conducted to explore differences in TG symptoms over time and between widows and widowers. No differences were found between men and women on the TG symptoms or the TG summary score, on any of the observational time points. With regard to the temporal course of TG symptomatology, indications were found that symptoms of separation distress are likely to subside over the passage of time, while symptoms of traumatic distress are unlikely to do so.

1999 ◽  
Vol 174 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly G. Prigerson ◽  
M. Katherine Shear ◽  
Selby C. Jacobs ◽  
Charles F. Reynolds ◽  
Paul K. Maciejewski ◽  
...  

BackgroundStudies suggest that symptoms of traumatic grief constitute a distinct syndrome worthy of diagnosis.AimsA consensus conference aimed to develop and test a criteria set for traumatic grief.MethodThe expert panel proposed consensus criteria for traumatic grief. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses tested the performance of the proposed criteria on 306 widowed respondents at seven months post-loss.ResultsROC analyses indicated that three of four separation distress symptoms (e.g. yearning, searching, loneliness) had to be endorsed as at least ‘sometimes true’ and four of the final eight traumatic distress symptoms (e.g. numbness, disbelief, distrust, anger, sense of futility about the future) had to be endorsed as at least ‘mostly true’ to yield a sensitivity of 0.93 and a specificity of 0.93 for a diagnosis of traumatic grief.ConclusionsPreliminary analyses suggest the consensus criteria for traumatic grief have satisfactory operating characteristics, and point to directions for further refinement of the criteria set.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Ume Kalsoom ◽  
Sabeen Rahim ◽  
Huma Akbar

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate gender differences on Imaginary Audience (IA) and depression among college students. METHODOLOGY: Six hundred college students, both boys (n=299) and girls (n=274) completed cross sectional survey. Data was collected from different colleges of Peshawar (KPK) from September- December 2016 using purposive sampling technique. The age range of the sample was 17-22 (M=19, SD=1.47) years. Two scales, New Imaginary Audience Scale (NIAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to them.   RESULTS: Analysis of the findings was made using stepwise deletion technique for sample distribution and t-test. Statistically significant gender differences were found on New Imaginary Audience Scale (t=-2.48, p= .001) and Beck Depression Inventory (t=3.07, p= .02). Mean score was on NIAS were among girls, while on depression boys mean scores were prominent. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study concluded gender differences on both variables i-e NIAS and Depression. The findings further suggest that girls have prominent features of new imaginary audience in their student’s life whereas, boys pertain depressive symptoms during this period.


2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy S. Hogan ◽  
J. William Worden ◽  
Lee A. Schmidt

Diagnostic criteria for complicated grief have been proposed as a pathological disorder for inclusion into the next edition of the DSM. However, to date, little empirical testing of the criteria to support or refute the diagnostic claims has been completed. Since the original criteria were developed based on work with widows and widowers, further testing with other bereft groups is needed before advancing complicated grief to a diagnosis worthy of inclusion in diagnostic systems. The present study was undertaken to empirically test the complicated grief disorder criteria. The basic criteria of the complicated grief disorder, formerly called traumatic grief, separation distress, and traumatic distress, were not isolated as distinct constructs in confirmatory factor analyses, and conceptualization as a unitary construct did not provide an adequate fit of the model to the data. Further analyses did not support the distinctness between complicated grief and depression, or complicated grief and normal grief. Based on these findings, both further investigation into the validity of complicated grief disorder as a diagnosis and verification of the validity of the diagnostic criteria is warranted before declaring this phenomenon appropriate for inclusion in diagnostic systems.


Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Gryglewicz ◽  
Melanie Bozzay ◽  
Brittany Arthur-Jordon ◽  
Gabriela D. Romero ◽  
Melissa Witmeier ◽  
...  

Abstract. Background: Given challenges that exceed the normal developmental requirements of adolescence, deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) youth are believed to be at elevated risk for engaging in suicide-related behavior (SRB). Unfortunately, little is known about the mechanisms that put these youth potentially at risk. Aims: To determine whether peer relationship difficulties are related to increased risk of SRB in DHH youth. Method: Student records (n = 74) were retrieved from an accredited educational center for deaf and blind students in the United States. Results: Peer relationship difficulties were found to be significantly associated with engagement in SRB but not when accounting for depressive symptomatology. Limitations: The restricted sample limits generalizability. Conclusions regarding risk causation cannot be made due to the cross-sectional nature of the study. Conclusion: These results suggest the need for future research that examines the mechanisms of the relationship between peer relationship difficulties, depression, and suicide risk in DHH youth and potential preventive interventions to ameliorate the risks for these at-risk youth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Adele H. Wang ◽  
CMA Haworth ◽  
Qiang Ren

BackgroundIn recent decades, China has experienced dramatic changes to its social and economic environment, which has affected the distribution of wellbeing across its citizens. While several studies have investigated individual level predictors of wellbeing in the Chinese population, less research has been done looking at contextual effects. This cross-sectional study looks at the individual and contextual effects of (regional) education, unemployment and marriage (rate) on individual happiness, life satisfaction and depressive symptomatology. MethodsData were collected from over 29,000 individuals (aged 18 to 110, 51.91% female) in the China Family Panel Studies, and merged with county level census data obtained from the 2010 China Population Census and Statistical Yearbook. To explore contextual effects, we used multilevel models accounting for the hierarchical structure of the data. ResultsWe found that a one-year increase in education was associated with a 0.17% increase in happiness and a 0.16% decrease in depressive symptoms. Unemployed men were 1% less happy, 1% less satisfied with life and reported 0.84% more depressive symptoms than employed men while minimal effects were seen for women. Single, divorced and widowed individuals had worse outcomes than married individuals (ranging from 2.96% to 21% differences). We found interaction effects for education and employment. Less educated individuals had greater happiness and less depressive symptoms in counties with higher average education compared to counterparts in less educated counties. In contrast, more educated individuals were less satisfied with life in more educated counties, an effect that is possibly due to social comparison. Employed individuals had lower life satisfaction in areas of high unemployment, while levels were constant for the unemployed. A 1% increase in county marriage rate was associated with 0.33% and 0.24% increases in happiness and life satisfaction respectively, with no interactions. We speculate that this effect could be due to greater social cohesion in the neighbourhood.ConclusionsOur results show that policies designed to improve employment and marriage rates will be beneficial for all, while interventions to encourage positive social comparison strategies may help to offset the negative effects of increasing neighbourhood average education on the highly educated.


Author(s):  
Dasari Tejaswini ◽  
Suhas Kulkarni ◽  
Dolar Doshi ◽  
Adepu Srilatha

AbstractBackgroundAesthetic alterations in the face can be self-perceived and can affect quality of life in young adults.ObjectiveTo assess the impact of malocclusion on self- perceived oro-facial behaviour among young adults.MethodsA Cross sectional study was conducted among 638 young adults (aged 18–21 years) of Hyderabad city. One college from each of the five zones of the Hyderabad city (five colleges) were selected by simple random sampling procedure. A 21-item Oro-facial investment scale (OFIS) questionnaire assessing self-perceived oral health knowledge, attitude, practice and Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) assessing the severity of malocclusion was used. Data were analysed with standard statistical software (SPSS, Statistical package for the social sciences, version 20.0). p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsMales had higher mean scores for knowledge (2.90 ± 0.49) than females (2.73 ± 0.82) and was statistically significant (p = 0.002*). No statistically significant gender differences were found in relation to attitude and practice. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was a significant difference in all the three scores (knowledge, attitude, practice) with respect to age, with significantly high score for knowledge and practice among 18 year old subjects (p = 0.0001*; p = 0.0003* respectively) and attitude among 21 year old subjects (p = 0.0049*). No statistically significant age, gender differences were found in relation to DAI scores. Upon correlation, DAI significantly and positively correlated with knowledge (p = 0.03*) and attitude (p = 0.0001*).ConclusionThis study has shown significant impact of malocclusion on the self-perceived oro-facial behaviour.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Insa Feinkohl ◽  
Petra Kozma ◽  
Friedrich Borchers ◽  
Simone J. T. van Montfort ◽  
Jochen Kruppa ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Studies suggest that a higher education and occupation are each associated with a higher late-life cognitive ability, but their inter-relationships in their association with cognitive ability and the contribution of peak IQ in young adulthood (‘pre-morbid IQ’) often remain unclear. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of 623 participants aged ≥65 years of the BioCog study. Education was coded according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED; range 1 to 6). Occupation was coded as ‘semi/unskilled’, ‘skilled manual’, ‘skilled non-manual’, ‘managerial’, ‘professional’. A summary score of global ability (‘g’) was constructed from six cognitive tests. Pre-morbid IQ was estimated from vocabulary. The Geriatric Depression Scale assessed symptoms of depression. Age- and sex-adjusted analyses of covariance were performed. Results Education (partial eta2 0.076; p < 0.001) and occupation (partial eta2 = 0.037; p < 0.001) were each significantly associated with g. For education, the association was attenuated but remained statistically significant when pre-morbid IQ was controlled for (partial eta2 0.036; p < 0.001) and was unchanged with additional adjustment for depression (partial eta2 0.037; p < 0.001). For occupation, the association with g was no longer significant when pre-morbid IQ (partial eta2 = 0.015; p = 0.06) and depression (partial eta2 = 0.011; p = 0.18) were entered as covariates in separate steps. When education and occupation were entered concurrently into the fully adjusted model, only education was independently associated with g (partial eta2 0.030; p < 0.001; occupation, p = 0.93). Conclusion While a higher education and a higher occupation were each associated with a higher late-life cognitive ability, only for education some unique contribution to cognitive ability remained over and above its relationship with pre-morbid IQ, depression, and occupation. Further research is needed to address whether a longer time spent in education may promote late-life cognitive ability.


Author(s):  
Yee Mang Chan ◽  
Norhafizah Sahril ◽  
Ying Ying Chan ◽  
Nor’ Ain Ab Wahab ◽  
Norliza Shamsuddin ◽  
...  

Vision and hearing impairments are common among older adults and can cause undesirable health effects. There are limited studies from low- and middle-income countries exploring gender differences between vision and hearing impairment with Activities of Daily Living (ADL) disability. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate gender differences between vision and hearing impairments with ADL disability among older adults in Malaysia. Cross-sectional data from 3977 respondents aged 60 and above from the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey 2018 were used. We used logistic regression analysis to measure associations between vision and hearing impairments with ADL disability, adjusted for covariates. The prevalence of ADL disability was higher among females than males (p < 0.001). The adjusted associations between vision impairment and ADL disability were significant among males (aOR 3.79; 95%CI 2.26, 6.38) and females (aOR 2.66; 95%CI 1.36, 5.21). Similarly, significant adjusted associations were found between hearing impairment and ADL disability among males (aOR 5.76; 95%CI 3.52, 9.40) and females (aOR 3.30; 95%CI 1.17, 9.33). Vision and hearing impairments were significantly associated with ADL disability, with no gender differences identified. Early detection and effective management of vision and hearing impairments are important to prevent ADL disability and improve older adults’ level of independence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailiana Santosa ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Lars Weinehall ◽  
Genming Zhao ◽  
Na Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Failure to promote early detection and better management of hypertension will contribute to the increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to assess the gender differences in the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension, together with its associated factors, in China and Sweden. Methods We used data from two cross-sectional studies: the Västerbotten Intervention Program in northern Sweden (n = 25,511) and the Shanghai survey in eastern China (n = 25,356). We employed multivariable logistic regression to examine the socio-demographics, lifestyle behaviours, and biological factors associated with the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension. Results Men had a higher prevalence of hypertension (43% in Sweden, 39% in China) than their female counterparts (29 and 36%, respectively). In Sweden, men were less aware of, less treated for, and had less control over their hypertension than women. Chinese men were more aware of, had similar levels of treatment for, and had less control over their hypertension compared to women. Awareness and control of hypertension was lower in China compared to Sweden. Only 33 and 38% of hypertensive Chinese men and women who were treated reached the treatment goals, compared with a respective 48 and 59% in Sweden. Old age, impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes, a family history of hypertension or cardiovascular diseases, low physical activity and overweight or obesity were found to increase the odds of hypertension and its diagnosis. Conclusions This study shows the age and gender differences in the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension among adults in China and Sweden. Multisectoral intervention should be developed to address the increasing burden of sedentary lifestyle, overweight and obesity and diabetes, all of which are linked to the prevention and control of hypertension. Development and implementation of the gender- and context-specific intervention for the prevention and control of hypertension facilitates understanding with regard to the implementation barriers and facilitators.


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