Relations Among Meaning Making, PTSD, and Complicated Grief Following Homicide Loss

Abstract

Survivors of homicide loss are vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief (CG). Meaning making in the aftermath of traumatic loss is hypothesized to be an adaptive process associated with reduced symptomatology. Homicide survivors (N = 57) completed the PTSD Checklist, Inventory of Complicated Grief–Revised, and Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory (GMRI). Correlations were found between the GMRI Emptiness and Meaninglessness subscale and both PTSD and CG symptom severity. Results lend support to the notion that reduced meaning making is particularly salient to the expression of PTSD and CG among homicide survivors.