Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-08DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2723782
NaYeon Yang, Karen M O'Brien
{"title":"Psychological adjustment in grief in the United States and South Korea: Continuing bonds, meaning making, and social support.","authors":"NaYeon Yang, Karen M O'Brien","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2723782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2723782","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychological adjustment following a loss involves grief-related proceses that may be common across cultures and culturally shaped. Continuing bonds, meaning making, and social support play significant roles in bereavement adjustment, yet their roles may vary across cultural contexts. In this cross-national study, we investigated similarities and differences in the relations among psychological distress, salient grief-related variables (i.e., internalized/externalized continuing bonds, meaning making, and implicit/explicit social support), and psychological adjustment among grievers in the U.S. and South Korea. After accounting for age and gender, psychological distress and the Emptiness and Meaninglessness subscale of meaning making were associated with psychological adjustment in both groups. Among U.S. participants, age and the Being Present subscale of meaning making were positively associated with psychological adjustment, whereas the Sense of Peace subscale of meaning making was negatively associated. Among South Korean participants, implicit social support was positively associated with psychological adjustment. Findings highlight shared and culturally distinct patterns in grief-related adjustment across the two cultural contexts. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-07DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2726888
Mercedes Hernández-Hurtado, Jennifer Elena Moreno-Jiménez, Luis Manuel Blanco-Donoso, Mario Chico-Fernández, Eva Garrosa Hernández
{"title":"Does patient death and suffering deplete or energize ICU healthcare professionals? Daily interaction of harmonious and obsessive passion.","authors":"Mercedes Hernández-Hurtado, Jennifer Elena Moreno-Jiménez, Luis Manuel Blanco-Donoso, Mario Chico-Fernández, Eva Garrosa Hernández","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2726888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2726888","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined the moderating role of daily harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) in the association between daily contact with patient death and suffering, and daily burnout and vitality. Grounded in job demands-resources theory, HP was expected to serve as a personal resource, reducing burnout and enhancing vitality. Conversely, OP was anticipated to function as a personal demand, exerting opposite effects. Motivational synergy theory suggested that higher levels of both HP and OP would interact synergistically to mitigate burnout and foster vitality. A daily diary study with 100 ICU professionals over five workdays revealed that HP prevented burnout and enhanced vitality among employees facing death and suffering. OP alone showed no effect, but when combined with daily HP, it strengthened vitality derived from such exposure. Findings highlight the need of cultivating HP and aligning organizational goals with ICU professionals' well-being amid daily contact with patient death and suffering.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-21"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148900136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-04DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2721402
Melissa Lunardini, Chris Hall, Larissa Hjorth, Phyllis Kosminsky, Val Massdorp, Andy Hau Yan Ho
{"title":"Assumptions and principles for responsible AI development and use in grief and bereavement care.","authors":"Melissa Lunardini, Chris Hall, Larissa Hjorth, Phyllis Kosminsky, Val Massdorp, Andy Hau Yan Ho","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2721402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2721402","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into grief and bereavement care represents a significant technological shift with therapeutic potential and ethical complexity. This paper establishes evidence-informed assumptions and principles to guide the responsible development and use of AI technologies in grief support, addressing the needs of bereaved individuals, families, communities, professionals, technology developers, and policymakers. We define \"Grief AI\" as applications spanning five core technological domains: Natural Language Processing for information seeking and therapeutic conversations; Computer Vision for emotion analysis and immersive experiences; Machine Learning for trajectory forecasting and treatment matching; Conversational and Generative AI for grief bots; and Integrated Multimodal AI incorporating advanced autonomous systems. The paper classifies these applications into low-, medium-, and high-risk categories based on factors including depth of user engagement, AI autonomy, potential for psychological harm, level of human supervision, and posthumous consent considerations. The paper acknowledges unresolved tensions regarding the authenticity of AI-generated empathy, cultural evolution versus inappropriate technologization of sacred experiences, implications for healthy grief adaptation, environmental ethics, and professional transformation. These provocations highlight the need for ongoing dialogue as the field evolves. We conclude that AI technologies can complement human-centered grief support through responsible development characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration, transparency, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to human dignity and welfare over commercial interests.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148891061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-03DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2716634
Jennie Dayes, Joseph Keenan, Georgia Wilson, Michal Sadza, Karina Croucher
{"title":"Death, bereavement and grief 'etiquette': Exploring remembrance and values.","authors":"Jennie Dayes, Joseph Keenan, Georgia Wilson, Michal Sadza, Karina Croucher","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2716634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2716634","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Death, bereavement, and grief \"etiquette\" describes a felt-sense of \"right,\" \"wrong,\" \"appropriate,\" \"inappropriate,\" \"should\" and \"must\" in death and bereavement contexts. Etiquette was explored qualitatively through eleven semi-structured interviews with reflexive thematic analysis used to answer the question: Where does etiquette arise in death and bereavement contexts, and what does this \"look like\"? All but one participant were bereaved individuals recruited via gatekeeper organizations. Etiquette arose in how individuals remembered their loved ones (funerals, talking about the deceased) and in spaces of remembrance (e.g., Facebook, gravesites). Findings offer psychotherapeutic practitioners common points of reference to help resolve conflict between clients with opposing etiquettes as well as specific re-frames to enable wider grief expression and practices. Etiquette is a useful theoretical concept for both professionals and the public, the knowledge of which bolsters wider initiatives to build grief literacy and compassionate communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148879309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-02DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2727641
Michal Mahat-Shamir, Ronit D Leichtentritt
{"title":"Constructing existential threat: Political discourse, leadership, and the social management of mortality.","authors":"Michal Mahat-Shamir, Ronit D Leichtentritt","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2727641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2727641","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In contexts of prolonged insecurity, existential threat becomes a central organizing principle of collective life. Terror Management Theory (TMT) has focused on intrapsychic responses to mortality salience. However, researchers have paid less attention to how public discourse constructs mortality-related threats. This study examines how political communication articulates and manages existential threat over time. Using a qualitative thematic analysis of speeches by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a hybrid inductive-deductive approach informed by TMT, the findings show that political discourse progressively constructs threat as a continuous condition, expanding across social boundaries and reshaping collective belonging. Discourse mobilizes cultural worldviews, identity, and self-esteem as anxiety buffers and positions leadership as an additional symbolic resource. These findings extend TMT by demonstrating that political discourse socially produces and discursively maintains mortality salience.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148879252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2727634
Yoa Sorek, Ortal Toporek Barr, Ilan Sharif
{"title":"\"Orphaned bereavement\": Toward a public health model for bereavement.","authors":"Yoa Sorek, Ortal Toporek Barr, Ilan Sharif","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2727634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2727634","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bereavement is increasingly recognized as a public health concern, yet support systems in many welfare states continue to allocate support according to the circumstances of death rather than the functional needs of bereaved families. Existing bereavement frameworks have substantially advanced understanding of social recognition and public legitimacy but provide more limited guidance for understanding how institutional responsibility for bereaved families is organized. using Israel as a bereavement-saturated case, this study introduces the concept of <i>orphaned bereavement</i> to describe bereavement in which no institution holds clearly defined and continuing responsibility for identifying needs, coordinating support, and ensuring continuity of care. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with five bereaved family members and 20 professionals, analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, the analysis generated three interrelated themes: institutionalized invisibility and unequal recognition; reorganizing life in the absence of institutional support; and pathways toward a needs-based model of bereavement support. The findings extend existing theories of disenfranchized grief and grievability by introducing institutional responsibility as a complementary lens for understanding bereavement inequality and support a needs-based public health approach in which support is organized according to families' evolving functional needs rather than the circumstances of death.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148873333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-09-01DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2724424
Matteo Rigo, Ciro De Vincenzo, Erika Iacona, Adriana Frenda, Anna Chiara Costante, Ines Testoni
{"title":"Ambiguous presence: Grief and care among healthcare assistants in permanent vegetative state.","authors":"Matteo Rigo, Ciro De Vincenzo, Erika Iacona, Adriana Frenda, Anna Chiara Costante, Ines Testoni","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2724424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2724424","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Patients in a permanent vegetative state present unique emotional, ethical and relational challenges for those who care for them, whose physical presence yet psychological absence may expose staff to ambiguous loss, vicarious grief and disenfranchized grief. This qualitative study used reflexive thematic analysis to explore the lived experiences of 13 healthcare assistants working in a vegetative-state unit in north-east Italy, drawing on semi-structured interviews about caregiving, emotional burden, grief and anticipatory treatment declarations. Five themes were developed, describing care as emotionally complex and requiring continuous negotiation between attachment and protective detachment, alongside ethical distress over prolonged treatment and profound shifts in views on life and death. Caring for these patients involves complex, often unrecognized grief; psychological support, reflective spaces, death education and training on ambiguous loss may help staff process emotional burden and sustain humanized care.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148873383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-08-31DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2726886
Myriam Guedj, Cassidy Berchoux, Maylis Gibert, Alexandra Maudet, Maria Teresa Munoz Sastre, Paul Clay Sorum, Etienne Mullet
{"title":"End of life decisions in France: Evolution of acceptability over two decades.","authors":"Myriam Guedj, Cassidy Berchoux, Maylis Gibert, Alexandra Maudet, Maria Teresa Munoz Sastre, Paul Clay Sorum, Etienne Mullet","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2726886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2726886","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>End-of-life decisions, including euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS), remain highly debated, particularly in countries like France, where legislative changes are under discussion. This study replicates Guedj et al. to assess changes in acceptability judgments over two decades using Anderson's (1981) information integration theory. Participants from the general public (N = 263: 115 in 2005, 148 in 2024) and healthcare professions (N = 126: 72 in 2005, 54 in 2024) evaluated life-ending decisions across scenarios. The study analyzed four factors: patient desire to die, suffering type (physical, psychiatric, or total dependence), actor (patient/physician), and procedure (active/passive). Results show stable overall acceptability, but PAS gained acceptance, while involuntary euthanasia became less tolerated. Physicians rated these decisions as less acceptable than the public, with nurses and nursing assistants positioned intermediately. Findings underscore increasing patient autonomy, informing France's end-of-life policy debates.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148863903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-08-31DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2723781
Öznur Çınar, Ekrem Cengiz
{"title":"When grief persists online: Development of the Digital Prolonged Grief Severity Scale.","authors":"Öznur Çınar, Ekrem Cengiz","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2723781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2723781","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bereaved individuals encounter the deceased through social media profiles, message histories, and algorithmic reminders, yet no validated instrument measures prolonged grief expressed through digital interactions. We developed and validated a multidimensional measure of digital-environment prolonged grief severity (DPGSS). Turkish bereaved adults (<i>n</i> = 577) bereaved at least 12 months earlier completed the DPGSS alongside grief, distress, and other less relevant measures, and 125 completed it again about three weeks later. Factor analyses supported a four-factor structure-digital separation distress and preoccupation, digital emotional responses, digital avoidance, and digital functional impairment-in 15 items. The correlated four-factor model fit the data well, outperforming a one-factor alternative. The DPGSS demonstrated strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and measurement invariance across nine demographic variables. Convergent associations with grief and distress, and negligible associations with rigidity and AI acceptance, supported its construct specificity. The DPGSS-15 is a reasonable tool for assessing digital prolonged grief.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148863871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Death StudiesPub Date : 2026-08-29DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2026.2723779
Stewart J H McCann
{"title":"U.S. State levels of ageism and adult suicide rates across age groups.","authors":"Stewart J H McCann","doi":"10.1080/07481187.2026.2723779","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2723779","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The hypothesis based on terror management theory and fear of death was that <i>higher</i> state ageism is associated with <i>lower</i> state suicide rates among the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Ageism scores were based on responses of 331,056 adults to an implicit association test between 2002 and 2020. Age-adjusted suicide rates for 2018-2022 pertained to four different age categories: 20 years and over, 20-39 years, 40-64 years, and 65 years and older. Statistical controls were socioeconomic status, income inequality, urbanization, Black population percent, religiosity, political conservatism, distress, and depression. Pearson correlations between ageism and the four age-based suicide rates ranged from -.55 to -.62. Multiple regressions with the eight controls and ageism as predictors produced βs for ageism ranging from -.52 to -.59. Multicollinearity and spatial autocorrelation were not problematic. Explanatory <i>speculation</i> focuses on higher fear of death, which is integrally associated with higher ageism, serving as a deterrent to suicide.</p>","PeriodicalId":11041,"journal":{"name":"Death Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148857156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}