Psychological Risk and Protective Factors for the Development of Prolonged Grief in Mourners

Objective: This study aims to analyze the relationships between stressful life events (SLEs), social support, psychopathology, and attachment in the bereavement process. We focus on predicting the risk of prolonged grief in bereaved caregivers of palliative patients and relatives of patients who died from sudden cardiac death, using complementary methodologies: regression models and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Methodology: Sample was 150 bereaved caregivers of palliative patients and relatives of patients who died from sudden cardiac death. Participants completed questionnaires assessing these factors. Results: Nearly half of the participants were at moderate-high risk for prolonged grief. Bereavement risk was negatively associated with instrumental and emotional social support and positively correlated with psychopathology and SLE. Hierarchical regression analysis explained 21.40% of the variance in prolonged grief risk, while QCA models identified high levels of psychopathology and perceived SLE as significant predictors. Conversely, secure attachment and strong social support were linked to lower risk. Conclusion: The findings underscore the importance of personalized support programs to enhance caregivers' well-being during bereavement.