Bereaved support questionnaire: Development, factor structure and metric characteristics

Abstract

© 2018 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia.All Rights Reserved. In the recent decades social support in the bereavement process represents an important and newly emerging scientific field of study. However, within the framework of national science supris-ingly little empirical work has examined how supportive comu-nication can affect the grieving process. The main objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire which measures the helpfulness of comforting messages received from the social network members. In addition to presenting the Bereaved Support Questionnaire, the present study explores the factor structure, as well as the psychometric characteristics of the scale. The second aim of the study is to determine whether the person centeredness of these messages explains their helpfulness. The survey was conducted on a sample of 301 respondents. The results indicate that the Bereaved Support Questionnaire represents a valid and reliable instrument whose composite structure is reflected by five factors: Social support, Minimizing feelings, Providing a religious perspective, Complimenting the deceased/ bereaved and normalizing feelings, and Offering practical help. The results confirm the expectations that the person centeredness of the five supporting strategies are related with the participants' evaluations of the helpfulness of these strategies.