Assessing prolonged grief on online platforms: The predictive role of perceived social support, meaning reconstruction and unfinished business

In the present study, the effects of meaning reconstruction , unfinished business and perceived social support on prolonged grief were assessed and the role of online grief in symptom severity was tried to be examined. In addition, it was investigated which factors play an important role in terms of engaging in loss-related behaviors. Within the scope of the study, 282 participants over the age of 18 who had lost a relative at least 12 months ago were reached. Participants were reached by convenient sampling method. Online grief behaviors were defined in the pilot study as announcing death, sharing photos, writing about loss, communicating with acquaintances, looking at the profile of the deceased, communicating with strangers, writing under the posts of the deceased or sending direct messages to the deceased and provided in the demographic form prepared. People who display one or more of these behaviors found to be show higher levels of adverse grief when compared to those who do not. In the hierarchical regression analysis coducted, it was found that the time since the loss, earthquake exposure, unfinished business and meaning reconstruction significantly predict severe and elongated grief symptoms. In addition to all these effective factors, frequency of loss-related behavior on social media still had explanatory value on symptom severity. According to information acquired from logistic regression, receiving professional support was found to be a significant predictor of engaging in loss-focused behavior on social media. The research findings were discussed in line with the relevant literature.