Loss in the Life Story: Remembering Death and Illness Across Adulthood

The experience of loss has not often been studied in the life story literature. Life disruption when loss of a loved one occurs may make loss events distinct, even from other challenges, when recalled. Optimally, individuals incorporate such events into their life story in a way that allows them to reflect positively on their life overall. We suggest that telling narratives that represent loss as leading to personal growth or as highlighting one's connectedness to others may allow a positive view of life overall. In contrast, ruminating may signal a lack of meaningful integration of the event. The current study investigates personal growth from, communion in, and rumination about memories of past loss events. It also determines how these factors relate to positive reflection on one's life overall. Age was explored as a moderator of these relations. Participants (29 younger adults, 40 older adults) narrated an autobiographical loss event and, for comparison, a non-loss challenging life event and a neutral event. Narratives were self-rated for rumination and extent of resultant personal growth, and reliably content-coded for themes of communion. Participants also completed a measure of positive reflection on their life. Loss narratives resulted in more personal growth and contained more communion themes than other challenging or neutral events. Greater loss-related personal growth predicted more positive life reflection for younger adults. How individuals recall and incorporate loss into their life story may relate differentially to psychosocial outcomes in different life phases.