Husband and Adult-Daughter Caregivers' Bereavement

Compared the post-patient death bereavement adjustment of 126 husband and 87 adult-daughter hospice caregivers of women terminally ill with breast cancer. Data used is from the National Hospice Study, collected in 1980–1983 (Greer&Mor, 1987). These husband and daughter caregivers did not differ on general grief experience or despair 90 days following the patient's death. Both husbands and daughters had more grief 90 days after the death if the patient died in a hospital setting as compared to at home. Daughter caregivers who lived with their mother had greater despair than daughter caregivers who did not live in the same household as their mother. For this sample of husband and adult-daughter caregivers, the difference in family role, husband versus daughter, did not relate to differences in grief and despair following the patient's death. This study suggests that grief experience varies with specifics of the caregiving relationship.