Latinos and Anglos: Cultural Experiences of Grief Intensity

Abstract

There is little research evidence in the United States literature on grief within the Latino culture. The main purpose of this study was to examine differences in grief intensity, following both sudden and expected death, between groups of Latino and Anglo individuals. Volunteer participants, fifty Latino and fifty Anglo, were surveyed using the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (English version and translated into Spanish) to assess grief intensity. Using primarily a 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance, it was found that Latinos grieving sudden death have a significantly greater grief intensity than Latinos grieving expected death and than Anglos grieving either kind of death. Among participants, neither funeral attendance, time since death, nor closeness of relationship had any significant effect on grief intensity. Additionally, among Latino participants, neither participation in a novena nor acculturation had a significant effect on grief intensity.