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Publication
“I could not give him the funeral he deserved”: The role of alternative mourning rituals during the pandemic
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, measures were enforced that constrained people's ability to engage in conventional funeral
and mourning rituals, which in general serve as vital mechanisms for coping with the experience of loss. This study aimed
to investigate how these limitations afected early grief symptoms and the infuence of alternative mourning rituals (paying
tribute on social media, lighting candles in memory of the deceased, and using objects of the deceased) on moderating the
relationship between individuals' perception of these limitations (such as being unable to perform the present body ceremony
or fulfll the funeral wishes of the deceased) and the intensity of the grief symptoms. The study involved 227 participants,
aged between 18 and 77 years, who had experienced the loss of a loved one during the pandemic. Results demonstrated
that higher levels of perceived limitation in funeral ceremonies are associated with greater intensity of grief responses.
Paying tribute on social media and lighting candles in memory of the deceased person moderated the relationship between
the perception of limitation in fulflling the deceased’s wishes in relation to the funeral ceremonies and the intensity of the
grief responses. Using objects moderates the relationship between the perception of limitation in performing a present body
ceremony and the intensity of the grief responses. Results underline the relevance of psychological fexibility, in particular
concerning alternative morning rituals, that can be used as a way of bufering the impact of the perception of limitation in
funeral ceremonies on the intensity of grief responses. This study ofers a distinctive insight into bereavement during the
pandemic, highlighting the role of fexibility in morning rituals in mitigating the deleterious efect of ritual restrictions on
bereavement outcomes.
Description
Keywords
Perception of limitation in funeral ceremonies Intensity of grief responses Alternative mourning rituals and SARS-CoV-2
Citation
Manquinho, S., Albuquerque, S., Salvador, Á., Delalibera, M., & Coelho, A. (2023). “I could not give him the funeral he deserved”: The role of alternative mourning rituals during the pandemic. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05305-6
Publisher
Springer New York