Coping with loss before or during the COVID-19 pandemic: A semantic analysis of bereaved people's narratives

Little is known about whether experiencing the loss of a loved one before or during a pandemic influences the way bereaved individuals represent and cope with grief. This study aimed to explore the experiences of those who lost a loved one either before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 140 participants (63.6% women; mean age = 42.4 ± 14.89 years). The verbatim interview transcripts were subjected to an automatic, context-sensitive semantic analysis aimed at identifying the two main dimensions underlying (dis)similarities in the participants' narratives. The first dimension highlighted two aspects on which the interviewees’ discourse focused, with the bereaved either trying to reconstruct the circumstances of their loss or searching for meaning. The second dimension revealed two different ways to represent the grieving process, which involved either support and sharing or internal processing. Searching for meaning and internal processing were found to characterise the narratives of the people who suffered a loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, those who were bereaved prior to the pandemic considered the support of their social network a key element in coping with grief. The findings will focus on how to offer more compassionate and effective support to grieving people, even during a health emergency.