Is the Stage Theory of Grief Empirically Valid?

Some theoreticians have conceived of the human response to bereavement and loss as a sequence of characteristic stages beginning with denial, progressing to various kinds of emotional turmoil, and ending with acceptance. The theory is appealing to clinicians. These researchers attempted a test of Jacobs’s four elements — disbelief, separation distress (i.e., yearning, anger), depression, and acceptance — by prospectively examining their frequency at three successive time points over 2 years. Each item was assessed with a single question.

Recruiting primarily elderly bereaved spouses, the investigators had a 55% response rate. Of the 317 who responded, 26% were then excluded because of bereavement by traumatic death, missing data, and “compli…