Measuring the Coping Efforts of Grieving Undergraduate Students: Developing the GCOPE Through a Mixed-Method Design

Abstract

MEASURING THE COPING EFFORTS OF GRIEVING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: DEVELOPING THE GCOPE THROUGH A MIXED-METHOD DESIGN By Benjamin Dyson Lord, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Major Director: Sandra E. Gramling, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology The current study used a three-phase mixed-methods design to produce a new selfreport measure of the strategies that college students use to cope with the death of a lovedone. To date, no other coping inventories exist which have been developed specifically to measure coping strategies that are relevant to this population. This is particularly problematic, as undergraduate students commonly experience bereavement and may be at unique risk for poor outcomes. College students are often estranged from their primary support networks and may also be in the process of undergoing important developmental tasks related to emerging adulthood. Stress and coping models allow for the idiosyncratic nature of the grieving process. However, the application of grief-specific stress-and-coping theories, such as the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement (DPM), have been hampered by