The role of blame in adaptation in the first 5 years following the death of a spouse

At 6 months postloss. 37 midlife bereaved participants engaged in an empty- chair monologue role ploy involving their deceased spouses. Judges rated th e extent of self and deceased-blame in participants' monologue discourse, a nd forms of continuing attachment to the deceased were assessed. Participan ts completed outcome measures at 14 25 and 60 months postloss. Self-blame w as uniquely predictive of grief-specific symptoms across 60 months postloss . Furthermore, the relationship between self-blame and grief-specific sympt oms was mediated by a maladaptive form of continuing attachment involving h anging onto the deceased's possessions. In contrast deceased-blame war uniq uely related to general symptoms at 14 months postloss but was not predicti ve of symptoms later on after the death. it was also negatively related to use of the fond memories form of continuing attachment The results were int erpreted in terms of differing motivational consequences of self versus dec eased-blame on the continuing attachment.