Symposia
Health Psychology / Behavioral Medicine - Adult
Elisabeth McLean, PhD
Doctoral student
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
Jonathan Singer, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
Background: Research shows laypeople hold expectations about how persons should grieve after a loss. Violations of such expectations may cause stigma, which has been found to result in negative mental health outcomes for bereaved persons. The current study examines stigma towards bereaved family members of persons who utilized Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), compared to bereaved family members of persons who died of a life limiting illness (e.g., cancer).
Methods: Study 1 used a 2 (mode of death: MAID vs. long-term illness) X 4 (age of deceased: 28, 38, 70 or 80 years) randomized between-groups, vignette-based approach to test the effects of mode of death and age of the deceased on stigma (i.e., grief expectations). Participants were recruited from mTURK. There were 428 participants (Mage=42.54; SDage=16.50) and most were female (n=265; 61.9%). Study 2 also used a 2 (mode of death: MAID vs. long-term illness) X 4 (age of deceased: 28, 38, 55 or 70 years) randomized between-groups vignette-based approach. Participants were students recruited via undergraduate psychology course. There were 308 participants (Mage=19.43; SDage=2.64) and most were female (n=216; 70.1%).
Results: Study 1 analyses showed a statistically significant interaction between age of deceased and mode of death (F(7, 400), p=.001, ɳp2=.06) and main effect for age of deceased (F(5, 401), p=.004 ɳp2=.04) on grief expectations. Participants expected more maladaptive grief among family members of 28- (M=44.12, SD=12.03) and 70-year-olds (M=44.32, SD=10.29) who died of illness compared to family members of 28- (M=39.3, SD=11.56; p=.01) or 38-year-olds (M=38.71, SD=11.56; p=.007) who engaged in MAID. For study 2, there was not a statistically significant interaction between age and mode of death (F(7, 288), p=.534, ɳp2=.021) on expectations of grief.
Conclusion: Findings indicate a middle-aged sample expects family members of young and middle-aged adults who engage in MAID grieve less than family members of young and old adults who die by illness. Beliefs that family members of persons who engage in MAID experience less grief could lead to less social support for this population, which may increase grief symptoms. Further, if family members of persons who engage in MAID grieve more intensely than expected, they may experience stigma which could lead to worse grief outcomes. However, college students appear to believe persons grieve similarly no matter the deceased person’s age or how they died. This might indicate that younger generations have less stigma toward persons who engage in MAID.