The relativity of grief: Differential adaptation reactions of younger and older persons

Abstract A study was conducted to investigate the differential emotional and coping responses of 41 older (M = 66.5 years) and 48 younger (M = 23.5 years) respondents who had recently lost a close loved one to death. Respondents completed a questionnaire in which they gave an account of the death of their loved one, information about how they coped with this loss, and responses concerning their emotions pertaining to the loss. As predicted, older respondents reported a higher degree of account-making (i.e., story-like constructions) about their losses and confiding in close others than did younger respondents. Further, older respondents showed fewer negative and more positive responses than younger respondents. These results were interpreted to suggest that older respondents were less acutely devastated by their losses and are consistent with the idea that