Open research questions in Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health

What the literature leaves open

• ¹For psychiatric perspectives, see Shear et al. (2005), Brown et al. (2018), Smith et al. (2020), Vedder et al. (2021), Duffy and Wild (2023) ²For social work perspectives, see Currer (2013), Drenth et al. (2013), Johns et al. (2020), Muskat et al. (2020), Yelboğa (2023) An intervention framework structured in this way allows treatment and support goals to be broadened by recognizing loneliness as both a clinical outcome and a significant risk factor in the grieving process. The development of structured, integrated support and treatment protocols for bereavement requires testing the effectiveness of models through pilot implementations and presenting these models as flexible yet standardized intervention packages within preventive mental health services. The comparison presented in Table 1, developed to inform integrated support and treatment planning, demonstrates that psychiatric approaches and social work perspectives address grief through distinct but complementary dimensions. Psychiatric approaches provide a strong framework for identifying the psychological impact of grief and structuring clinical interventions based on the assessment of symptom severity. Social work interventions, in contrast, focus on the social context of bereavement, the functioning of social support systems, and the role of structural inequalities. When the experience of being alone with grief is considered, psychiatric perspectives often conceptualize loneliness as a secondary clinical risk factor, whereas social work Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar-Current Approaches in Psychiatry 1420 approaches frame loneliness as a socially produced and socially maintained condition that requires structural and relational intervention. This comparison suggests that symptom-focused interventions alone are insufficient to address the complexity of grief. It underscores the need for comprehensive approaches that incorporate social health, social context, and social support mechanisms. Accordingly, the integration of psychiatric treatment with social work practices is essential for the provision of effective and sustainable support during the grieving process.

  Multidimensional Nature of Grief: A Social Health Perspective on Grief-Related Loneliness · 2026 · DOI

• Based on the findings of this study, several recommendations are proposed to strengthen bereavement support systems within the Barbaig community.

  Women's Engagement in Supporting Bereaved Families among the Barbaig of Mkarama District, Singida Region, Tanzania · 2026 · DOI

• In sum, this Special Issue showcases novel research on grief in the digital age, pro- viding a wealth of original phenomenological analyses, epistemological consider- ations, and ethical implications. This research, we hope, can inspire and shape future research on the impact of contemporary (and near-future) AI technologies on grief in response to bereavement and non-bereavement losses. In what follows, we would like to identify two desiderata for future research. First, as pointed out by several contributors to this Special Issue, there is a dearth of empirical research on the phenomenological and epistemological characteristics of human-AI interactions in the context of grief. For example, to the best of our knowl- edge, there is currently no systematic qualitative empirical research on deathbot use and the engagement with other death technologies. Accordingly, as our philosophical understanding of the interaction of grieving agents with death technologies is increas- ing, empirical research is urgently needed to test, revise, and refine philosophically generated hypotheses and inform philosophical theory formation. Second, several contributors to this Special Issue assume that grief is subject to various inter-individual differences. According to this assumption, grief experiences vary across populations, depending on people’s socio-cultural identities and their situatedness in culturally and politically structured environments. Future research on grief in the digital age should take the diversity and variability of grief into account and specify the diverse and variable impacts of AI technologies on different popula- tions as they navigate and negotiate loss. Acknowledgements We would like to express our deep gratitude to the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre for hosting and funding a workshop titled “Grief in the Digital Age” (November 2023), which facilitated this Special Issue. We would also like to thank all reviewers that have contributed to the success of this Special Issue. Some of these reviewers have been particularly generous with their time and expertise and we would like to acknowledge their collegiality and care. Author contributions Both authors contributed to the conception and writing of this introduction and approved the submission of this version. Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions Data Availability Not applicable.

  Introduction: grief in the digital age · 2026 · DOI

• Given that the military context emphasises combat-related deaths, and anticipating similar losses in other families, the focus should be on intervention strategies, especially preventive ones. Families should be trained in self- and group-care techniques through seminars, with a focus on bolstering psychological resources to enhance widows’ resilience. Ministry of Defence (MoD) Psychological Support Initiatives for the families: The Ministry of Defence should institute an initiative geared to ensure families’ psychological support during operations and deployments. Such strategies as conducting seminars/workshops for families when their husbands/dads are deployed in combat missions. The widows and their children were more affected due to the long separation they had with their loved ones, causing the level of denial to be high. Some still thought their loved ones would come back just as they used to after a long separation through deployment.

  Widowhood and the Psychological Well-Being of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Widows · 2026 · DOI

• It is important to acknowledge the limitations inherent to this study. Only parents from German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) were included; people from other countries were not involved. This may be seen as a limitation, as the phenomenon under study is complex and may vary across cultural or even local contexts. On the other hand, the sample of our study is already heteroge- neous. Expanding the sample further to include additional countries and cultural contexts may have made it more challenging to generate broadly applicable insights into the experience of this life situation. The quotes are originally in German and have been translated into English for this arti- cle. To ensure the accuracy of these quotes, the translation process was carried out by two researchers and checked in turn by a native speaker. Nevertheless, possible misun- derstandings from the interviewees’ perspective cannot be completely ruled out. In addition, we were only able to recruit parents aged 30 and over. Younger fathers and moth- ers did not take part in this study but could potentially have provided different and valuable insights. We will be looking for these in the next stages of the study.

  Needs of parents during their intrauterine or perinatal child loss – a qualitative multi-method study · 2026 · DOI

• Despite the high prevalence of suicide and fatal overdose, and the morbidity associated with these forms of bereavement, little is known about the loss-related needs of adults bereaved by these two causes, including whether survivors’ needs differ from those losing significant persons to other forms of sudden death and how these needs may relate to psychiatric symptomatology.

  Bereavement-Related Needs and Their Relation to Mental Health Symptoms Among Adults Bereaved by Suicide and Fatal Overdose · 2024 · DOI

• <br/><br/>Conclusions<br/>Peer-based models of support and connection to victim parents warrant further investigation as potential intervention targets to alleviate identity-based distress following bereavement due to parental IPH.

  “That weird kid without parents”: a qualitative analysis of identity following bereavement due to parental intimate partner homicide in Australia · 2024 · DOI

• Three causes seem to be at play: grief is usually understood to be connected to death and other types of loss are under-researched; the majority of research is done from the field of psychology and on pathological forms of grief, hardly integrating research from other disciplines; and the existential suffering related to grief is not recognized or insufficiently integrated in the dominant models.

  The integrated process model of loss and grief - An interprofessional understanding · 2023 · DOI

• There is limited knowledge about the characteristics of people in the first year of bereavement who have an elevated chance of developing full prolonged grief disorder beyond the 12-month time point.

  Prolonged grief disorder in DSM-5-TR: Early predictors and longitudinal measurement invariance · 2021 · DOI

• The present study aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the presence and severity of unfinished business as well as common themes of unfinished business reported in open-ended qualitative narratives among a sample of 224 bereaved individuals.

  Unfinished Business in Bereavement · 2015 · DOI

• 2 What helps to protect and sustain parents and families in the aftermath of such an unambiguously tragic loss? High-quality evidence on specific support interventions following stillbirth or neonatal death is lacking9 and different interventions will be required for different settings and cultural groups, but essential ingredients of quality care include a deep respect for the individuality and diversity of parents' grief and respect for the deceased child.

  Meeting the needs of parents after a stillbirth or neonatal death · 2014 · DOI

• Based on family relational schemata theory, FCP has been shown to predict a variety of cognitive and behavioral outcomes, but research has not explored their effect on the bereavement process.

  Grieving Those We've Lost: An Examination of Family Communication Patterns and Grief Reactions · 2010 · DOI

• Further research into conceptualizations of CG in terms of attachment theory and constructivist and cognitive-behavioral concepts of finding purpose and meaning after bereavement is warranted.

  Predictors of Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies · 2010 · DOI

• This article proposes a wider definition of bereavement as imperative if historians are to engage more fully with the multi-faceted experiences of many parents and argues that despite the excellent research conducted by scholars in the field in recent years, the extremities of parental bereavement are still under explored.

  ‘In the Shadow of War’: Australian parents and the legacy of loss, 1915–1935 · 2009 · DOI

• Investigations that examine sibling bereavement are scarce (Osterweis, Solomon & Green, 1984) and assessment of the unique experience of adult sibling grief requires careful consideration before existing measures can be applied.

  Assessment of Adult Sibling Grief: A Review of Measurement Issues · 1996 · DOI

• Major gaps in knowledge include: limited research on single parent widow families including longitudinal and theory-based research; findings which are based on small samples of single parent widows who are often mixed with other single parent types; little research on single parent widows from Black, Hispanic and other ethnic groups; and few studies on resources used by widows.

  Single Parent Widows: · 1994 · DOI

• While nursing care plays a central role in supporting patients during early postoperative admission, little is known about how nursing practices shape patients’ sense-making and adjustment during this critical period, particularly in low-resource settings.

  Experiences of patients following limb amputation: An interpretative phenomenological study · 2026 · DOI

• While burnout has been recognized as a significant concern, grief and psychological strain remain underexplored as related, partly overlapping phenomena.

  Silent burdens: global perspectives on grief and psychological strain among neuro-oncology neurosurgeons · 2026 · DOI

• Adult attachment may shape how students regulate distress and respond to death-related stressors, but little is known about attachment profiles and their associations with death attitudes and intention to remain in nursing.

  Adult attachment profiles, death attitudes, and intention to remain in nursing among Chinese intern nursing students · 2026 · DOI

• Cognitive processes such as rumination may play a crucial role in maintaining and amplifying distress following loss, yet their specific contribution in perinatal bereavement remains underexplored.

  Rumination as a cognitive vulnerability factor in perinatal bereavement: evidence from the CARING study · 2026 · DOI

• Our results among Black and Hispanic adults indicate that the life course timing of parental death was unrelated to early-midlife psychological distress, exposing an understudied area of the 'Minority Mental Health Paradox'.

  Navigating the minority grief paradox: racial-ethnic differences on parental death, social ties and early-midlife psychological distress in the United States · 2026 · DOI

• , emotionally significant belongings of the deceased) may reflect may reflect externalized expressions of proximity-seeking, yet their association with grief symptoms remains understudied.

  Behavioral interactions and emotional engagement with loss-related objects in bereavement: associations with grief symptom severity · 2026 · DOI

• We did not aim to define a distinct grief profile for people with autism, but rather to illustrate the diversity of grief expressions that have been identified in research and warrant further exploration.

  Grief, Bereavement, and Related Care for People With Autism: a Scoping Review · 2026 · DOI

• However, this interactive process of coregulation has mostly been studied from the perspective of one partner, not both, resulting in limited knowledge about the interpersonal dynamics that guide the type of supportive responses couples use.

  Coregulatory Responsive Strategies in Bereaved Parents · 2025 · DOI

• Interest in near-death experiences (NDEs) has grown across disciplines such as medicine, psychology, and literature, yet no consensus exists on their origin or nature.

  Near-Death Experiences: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review of Published Literature From 1977 to 2025 · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health

• The myths of coping with loss. · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · 1989 · 555 citations
• Predictors of Complicated Grief: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies · Death Studies · 2010 · 502 citations
• Loss and Resilience in the Time of COVID‐19: Meaning Making, Hope, and Transcendence · Family Process · 2020 · 391 citations
• Treatment of complicated grief: A comparison between cognitive-behavioral therapy and supportive counseling. · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · 2007 · 373 citations
• The prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in bereaved individuals following unnatural losses: Systematic review and meta regression analysis · Journal of Affective Disorders · 2020 · 292 citations
• Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of lack of adequate parental care · Psychological Medicine · 1986 · 239 citations
• The Effect of Widowhood on Mortality by the Causes of Death of Both Spouses · American Journal of Public Health · 2008 · 229 citations
• Acute grief after deaths due to COVID-19, natural causes and unnatural causes: An empirical comparison · Journal of Affective Disorders · 2020 · 216 citations
• Prolonged grief disorder following the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic · Psychiatry Research · 2020 · 208 citations
• Grief Following Miscarriage: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature · Journal of Women s Health · 2008 · 208 citations

Most recent work

• Suicide Loss and Its Impacts on Mortality, and Mental, Physical, and Social Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Registry-Based Studies · Harvard Review of Psychiatry · 2026
• When Growth Takes Time: Differentiated Trajectories of Posttraumatic Growth After Pandemic Bereavement · Journal of Loss and Trauma · 2026
• “Just Stay Home and Wait It Out”: Exploring Challenges Accessing Care for Miscarriage in Indiana · Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health · 2026
• Initial Validation of a Measure Assessing DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 Prolonged Grief in Children and Adolescents · Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma · 2026
• Fractures and Reconstruction: Social Identity Formation in Ecological Funeral Services in Guangdong and Hubei Provinces, China · OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · 2026
• Reframing Grief for Black Students: A Qualitative Analysis of Grief Resilient Affirming Care through Empowerment (G.R.A.C.E.) Training · International Journal of Social Work · 2026
• Information and counselling on post-mortem reproduction: a Delphi study with ART specialists · Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics · 2026
• Grief, Bereavement, and Related Care for People With Autism: a Scoping Review · Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · 2026
• Needs of parents during their intrauterine or perinatal child loss – a qualitative multi-method study · BMC Public Health · 2026
• Een optimistische, ondersteunende benadering bij rouw: een kwalitatieve studie · Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde en Gezondheidszorg · 2026

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