Measuring grief after sudden violent death: Zeebrugge bereaved at 30 months

The Expanded Texas Inventory of Grief was used to measure the intensity of grief reactions in those bereaved by the Zeebrugge Disaster 30 months on. “View of Life” items were also included. The ETIG scores reported confirm the view that those bereaved by disaster or other sudden death score higher than those affected by bereavements which are expected. Further, the scores of the bereaved, who did not experience the impact, are somewhat higher than the scores of the survivors, who did, on all the measures used. The ETIG as a whole correlates highly with measures of general psychological symptoms and intrusive and avoidant trauma reactions, although there are indications that each measure relates to different areas of symptoms. There is strong support for the idea that avoidance and denial are central to prolonged grief reactions as well as to post-traumatic reactions. “View of Life” items did not correlate with other measures and seem to have little value in predicting psychological symptoms. The use of these items, which appear in later revisions of the scale (TRIGVOL) may indicate that this particular version has reduced clinical utility. A short form of the ETIG is suggested.