Guilt in Bereavement: The Role of Self-Blame and Regret in Coping with Loss

Such associations were not found for depression. Initial levels of regret were neither associated with initial levels of grief and depression, nor were they related to the decline over time in either outcome variable. These results demonstrate the importance of examining guilt-related manifestations independently, over time, and with respect to both generic and grief-specific outcome variables.

A main conclusion is that self-blame (but not regret) is a powerful determinant of grief- specific difficulties following the loss of a loved one. Implications for intervention are considered. For guilt and grief, scale scores were calculated by adding the respective single items.