BEREAVEMENT AND GRIEF: THEIR PREDICTIVE IMPACTS ON SENSE OF COHERENCE AMONG NKPOR NATIVES IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined bereavement/grief and impacts on sense of coherence in Nkpor, Anambra State, Nigeria. Adults (123) of 50 males, 73 females, age-range 23-67, mean-age 38.18 and SD 12.86 in simple random and snowballing samplings participated. Instruments were Sense of Coherence, Bereavement Phenomenological Questionnaire and Inventory of Complicated Grief. Design was correlational with Hierarchical Linear Regression. In findings, bereavement non-significantly predicted “comprehensibility” sense of coherence (F1, 121), β= -.02, t= -.19, p>.05. Grief significantly predicted “comprehensibility” sense of coherence (F2, 120), β= .29, t=3.08, p<.05. Bereavement negatively significantly predicted “manageability” sense of coherence (F1, 121), β= -.02, t= -.19, p<.05. Grief negatively significantly predicted “manageability” sense of coherence (F2, 120), β= -.52, t= -6.20, p<.05. Bereavement non-significantly predicted “meaningfulness” sense of coherence (F1, 121), β= -.11, t=1.19, p>.05. Grief non-significantly predicted “manageability” sense of coherence (F2, 120), β= .17, t=1.80, p>.05. Recommendations: Social support needs to be given during bereavement/grief.