Bereaved Young Adults Study

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Bereaved adolescents and emerging adults are at risk for developing psychological disorders and complicated grief. Clinical grief interventions and conventional wisdom reflect an implicit assumption that sharing and expressing one's feelings surrounding a loss (i.e., emotional disclosure) facilitates psychological adjustment. However, studies of emotional disclosure have yielded null results in bereaved samples. Individuals who have encountered stressful life events, including interpersonal loss, often report a desire to "give back" to others in similar situations. Empirical evidence suggests that providing support to others can be equally, if not more, beneficial than receiving support. The opportunity to support others experiencing stressful circumstances may address common feelings of powerlessness and engender a sense of meaning, enhancing positive affect and reducing distress. Interventions that leverage prosocial behaviors are associated with positive effects, including increases in wellbeing in non-bereaved populations. To date, no research has examined the utility of prosocial interventions for bereaved individuals. The present study tests a novel expressive helping intervention that combines elements of expressive disclosure and prosocial writing. Expressive helping will be compared to traditional expressive disclosure and a neutral writing control condition in a sample of bereaved young adults. Participants (N=156) will be randomized to one of three conditions-expressive disclosure, expressive helping, or a neutral writing control-and complete three weekly 20-minute writing sessions. Measures of psychological distress, well-being, and hypothesized mediators will be administered before, immediately following (within 48 hours of the final writing session), one month, and two months after the writing sessions. It is hypothesized that the participants in the expressive helping condition will evidence greater increases in well-being and decreases in grief-related distress at the one and two-month follow-ups, as compared to the other two groups.

Clinical Trial Description

n/a

Study Design

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

Bereavement

Clinical Trial Details

NCT number	NCT05352243
Study type	Interventional
Source	University of California, Los Angeles
Contact
Status	Completed
Phase	N/A
Start date	January 24, 2022
Completion date	September 1, 2022

View Details

See also
Status	Clinical Trial	Phase
Not yet recruiting	`NCT05867706` - Caregiver Burden and Bereavement-related Distress
Completed	`NCT02886052` - Internet-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia for Parents Who Have Lost a Child	N/A
Completed	`NCT01453699` - Long-term Consequences of Bereavement in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults	N/A
Completed	`NCT05655741` - Modified Delphi for Genomic Bereavement Care
Completed	`NCT00001913` - The Impact of Familiarity and Emotional Attachment on the Visual Processing of Faces	N/A
Enrolling by invitation	`NCT06150859` - Ayahuasca Assisted Psychotherapy for Grief	Phase 2
Completed	`NCT04254718` - Digital Storytelling in the NICU	N/A
Completed	`NCT02631291` - Promoting Widowed Elders Lifestyle After Loss	N/A
Recruiting	`NCT06191484` - Risk and Resilience to Suicide Following Late-Life Spousal Bereavement	N/A
Completed	`NCT05156346` - Pragmatic RCT to Assess the Effectiveness of an Online Self-help Programme for Older Adults After Spousal Bereavement	N/A
Completed	`NCT02112084` - An Individualized Grief Intervention for Spouses of Cancer Patients After the Patient's Death	N/A
Recruiting	`NCT06047808` - Feasibility Study of the Storytelling Through Music Intervention With Bereaved Parents	N/A
Recruiting	`NCT06136260` - The Missing Pieces Trial: A Comparison of Two Interventions to Support Parents After Their Child's Unexpected or Traumatic Death	N/A
Recruiting	`NCT05142605` - Evaluation of Grief Therapy Approaches for Bereaved Parents	N/A
Completed	`NCT04929405` - Pilot Testing ADAPT a Bereavement Care Intervention	N/A
Enrolling by invitation	`NCT06302283` - Collateral Effects of Pandemics - Care for Informal Caregivers
Completed	`NCT02672800` - A Psychosocial Intervention for Bereaved Spousal Caregivers of Persons With Dementia	N/A
Completed	`NCT01179568` - A Study of Medication With or Without Psychotherapy for Complicated Grief	Phase 2
Completed	`NCT04505904` - Oxytocin and Approach-avoid in Grief	N/A
Completed	`NCT04602520` - Preserving Compassionate End of Life Care in the Pandemic

Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.

Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.