3 - (OP1) Grief Rumination and Loneliness Following Bereavement: Evidence from Cross-sectional Survey and Ecological Momentary Assessment

Loneliness is one of the common reactions to bereavement, which includes emotional loneliness (i.e., lacking but longing for close emotional bonds) and social loneliness (i.e., lack of social interactions). Grief rumination, repetitive thinking about the bereavement experience and the deceased person, could maintain negative emotions (e.g., loneliness) of bereaved individuals, with different dimensions of grief rumination affect mental health of the bereaved people differently. This study explored the distinct roles of different dimensions of grief rumination on emotional and social loneliness at both interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. Study 1 conducted a cross-sectional online survey among 228 bereaved adults and found that overall loneliness was positively correlated with rumination on yearning and negatively associated with rumination on seeking positivity. Moreover, emotional loneliness was positively related to rumination on regret and injustice and negatively related to counterfactuals, whereas social loneliness was negatively correlated with seeking positivity. Study 2 adopted ecological momentary assessment among 63 bereaved adults, which included 4 times of self-reported assessments everyday for 14 consecutive days. Concurrent correlation analyses revealed positive associations between both past-oriented (i.e., yearning, recalling conflicts, regretting, counterfactuals, injustice) and present-future-oriented (i.e., self-comforting, consequences of the loss, meaning of the loss, seeking positivity, grief reaction, reaction of others, considering others) grief rumination and emotional and social loneliness. Cross-lagged analyses showed that both past-oriented and present-future-oriented grief rumination predicted subsequently increased emotional loneliness, and only present-future-oriented grief rumination predicted increased social loneliness. However, both types of loneliness had no predictive effect on grief rumination. This study provided the first evidence on the distinct role of grief rumination at both interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. When dealing with emotional loneliness after bereavement, cognitive reconstructions could be used to modify past-oriented grief rumination, especially regrets and injustice. Distraction from present-future-oriented grief rumination and meaning reconstruction may help to alleviate social loneliness.