The measurement of couple and family interactions and relationship quality in bereavement research

Abstract

Family assessment in grief research has been interested in either the impact of bereavement on family grief, and more precisely, how an individual’s grief influences the family functioning, or how family dynamics mediate family members’ individual grief experiences. Couple and family instruments used in grief research are reviewed. These were found to be well-validated and are usually popular in family research. In addition, qualitative research on family grief is reviewed to provide a more dynamic and interactive perspective. Finally, recommendations for further development of family grief assessment instruments are proposed. For future bereavement research, we suggest the use of multidimensional assessments, a multi-method, multi-informant, and multi-level approach to grasp the complex interactions of grief in the couple and family context.