IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v282y2021ics027795362100441x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A scoping research literature review to map the evidence on grief triggers

Author

Listed:
  • Wilson, Donna M.
  • Underwood, Leah
  • Errasti-Ibarrondo, Begoña

Abstract

Grief is understandably severe in the first days, if not weeks or months, following the death of a beloved person. Unless the mourner develops complicated grief, which is prolonged severe and impactful grief, the initial acute grief lessens in severity over time, although waves of significant grief will still occur with grief triggers. A scoping research literature review was undertaken in early 2021 to determine how often grief triggers occur, what the most common grief triggers are, the impact of triggered grief, and what can be done (by those not diagnosed with complicated grief) to manage grief triggers and mitigate the effect of them. Nine academic library databases were searched for English-language research reports using the keywords “grief trigger(s)” and “research”: CINAHL, Directory of Open Access (online) Journals, Humanities Index, JSTOR, Medline (Ovid), Periodicals Index Online, PsychArticles, Scopus, and Web of Science. Six research papers relevant for review were published in the last two decades, with some evidence gained on how often grief triggers occur, what constitutes a grief trigger, and the impact of grief triggers. Major gaps in evidence were revealed, despite grief triggers being identified as a major consideration for grief in general and for grief recovery specifically.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson, Donna M. & Underwood, Leah & Errasti-Ibarrondo, Begoña, 2021. "A scoping research literature review to map the evidence on grief triggers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:282:y:2021:i:c:s027795362100441x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114109
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362100441X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114109?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deborah Carr & John Sonnega & Randolph M. Nesse & James S. House, 2014. "Do Special Occasions Trigger Psychological Distress Among Older Bereaved Spouses? An Empirical Assessment of Clinical Wisdom," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(1), pages 113-122.
    2. Oreg, Ayelet, 2020. "The grief ritual of extracting and donating human milk after perinatal loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    3. van der Houwen, Karolijne & Stroebe, Margaret & Schut, Henk & Stroebe, Wolfgang & Bout, Jan van den, 2010. "Mediating processes in bereavement: The role of rumination, threatening grief interpretations, and deliberate grief avoidance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1669-1676, November.
    4. Nielsen, Mette Kjærgaard & Carlsen, Anders Helles & Neergaard, Mette Asbjoern & Bidstrup, Pernille Envold & Guldin, Mai-Britt, 2019. "Looking beyond the mean in grief trajectories: A prospective, population-based cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 460-469.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kirsten V Smith & Anke Ehlers, 2021. "Prolonged grief and posttraumatic stress disorder following the loss of a significant other: An investigation of cognitive and behavioural differences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Stephens, Simon & McLaughlin, Christopher & McLaughlin, Katrina, 2021. "Small business in a time of crisis: A five stage model of business grief," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    3. Treml, Julia & Schmidt, Viktoria & Nagl, Michaela & Kersting, Anette, 2021. "Pre-loss grief and preparedness for death among caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    4. Finnegan, Amy, 2020. "Effects of a sister's death in childbirth on reproductive behaviors: Difference-in-difference analyses using sisterhood mortality data from Indonesia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    5. Park, Sujeong & Kim, Jinho, 2024. "The death of an adult child and trajectories of parental depressive symptoms: A gender-based longitudinal analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:282:y:2021:i:c:s027795362100441x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.