The predictors of grief: Past experiences, emotion regulation, resilience, social support and coping skills

In this study, firstly, it was aimed to examine the relationship between the grief processes of individuals who have experienced one' s loss in the last two years, to participate in past mourning experiences, to provide emotion regulation, to have a high level of resistance, to have social support and to deal with stress. Secondly, it was aimed to explain the predictive effect of these factors on the grief process. The third objective of the study was to provide past grief experiences, emotion regulation, and to investigate the mediating role of resistance and social support in the relationship between stress and coping styles with the mourning process. The sample consisted of 228 participants who lost one relative in the last two years. Participants age ranged between 18 to 66 years (SD = 11.83). 94 (41.2%) of the participants were female and 134 (58.8%) were males. The socio-demographic information form was used to collect the demographic information of the participants; Past Grief Experiences Scale (GRSS) to gain knowledge about past grief experiences; Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form (DERS-16) for measuring emotion regulation skills; Resilience Scale for Adults (BOTS) for measuring the level of resistance, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (MPSAS) for measuring the social support dimension, Styles of Coping With Stress Scale (SCSS) for measuring the social support dimension, The Texas Adjusted Mourning Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were applied for the measurement of the factors and severity of grief. Firstly, one-way ANOVA was used to compare demographic variables in terms of age and psychopathology. Afterwards, Pearson correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationships between past grief experiences, emotion regulation difficulty, resilience, perceived social support, coping styles, grief intensity and psychopathologies. Finally, simple linear regression analysis was used to investigate the predictors of the grief variable. As a result of the analyzes, it was seen that younger (25 years and under) participants had less ability to regulate their emotions, their levels of resilience and social support were lower than the older (41 years and older) participants. Additionally, it was found that the level of resilience of male participants was higher than that of female participants and the level of social support received by female participants was higher than that of male participants. It was also found that the anxiety levels of the individuals whose relatives were lost were the ones who died by accident. In addition, the subdimension named past behaviors was negatively correlated with emotion regulation difficulty, resilience and coping styles. It was concluded that past mourning experiences increased the predictive power of endogenous variables. Emotion regulation skills, resilance and stress coping styles predicted mourning process; and the perceived social support variable has a mediating role. Key Words: past grief experiences, emotion regulation skills, being resilient, social support, skills of coping with stress