Effectiveness of Meaning-Centered Group Therapy on Grief Acceptance and Quality of Life in Bereaved Women
Keywords:
Meaning, Centered Group Therapy, Grief Acceptance, Quality of Life, Bereavement, Bereaved WomenAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of meaning-centered group therapy on grief acceptance and quality of life among bereaved women.
Methods and Materials: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest control-group design with a two-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of bereaved women residing in Tehran in 2026 who had experienced the death of a spouse or a first-degree family member. Thirty eligible women were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group, with 15 participants in each group. The experimental group received eight weekly 90-minute sessions of meaning-centered group therapy, whereas the control group received no structured intervention during the study period. Data were collected using the current-feelings section of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF. Data were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparisons in SPSS version 27.
Findings: The time-by-group interaction was significant for grief acceptance, F(2,56)=39.61, p<0.001, partial η²=0.586. A significant time-by-group interaction was also found for quality of life, F(2,56)=44.86, p<0.001, partial η²=0.616. Bonferroni comparisons indicated that grief acceptance significantly improved from pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up (p<0.001), whereas the posttest-follow-up difference was not significant (p=0.204). Quality of life also significantly improved from pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up (p<0.001), while the posttest-follow-up difference was not significant (p=0.176).
Conclusion: Meaning-centered group therapy appears to be an effective intervention for improving grief acceptance and quality of life among bereaved women by facilitating acceptance of loss, reconstructing meaning, and strengthening future orientation, with treatment effects remaining stable at the two-month follow-up.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Leila Amrollahi Boyouki; Tayebe Derikvand, Shadi Sadat Seyedi, Erfan Khalili Moghadam, Zhaleh Hasanpour, Melika Rezazadeh Moghadam (Author)
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