Influence of Perceived Preventability of the Death and Emotional Closeness to the Deceased: A Test of Bugen's Model

Abstract

This study tested Bugen's (1977, 1979) model of human grief with data from 435 adults, ages eighteen to eighty-eight years old, who had attended the funeral of a family member or close friend in the past two years. The model's two factors, Emotional Closeness to the deceased and Perceived Preventability of the death, were strong predictors of grief and bereavement adjustment. To test the robustness of this model, these two factors were then used to predict aspects of the funeral. Emotional Closeness to the deceased, but not Perceived Preventability of the death, provided some prediction of Meaningfulness of the funeral and Participation in the funeral rituals.