Measurement Properties of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief in a Sample of Bereaved Family Caregivers

• Background: The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG) is a well- used instrument designed to measure the intensity of post-loss grief. It consists of two subscales; Past Behaviours involves thinking back to the time just after a loved one’s death and Present Feelings focuses on the current situation. The two subscales consist of 8 and 13 items respec- tively and lower scores indicate more intense grief. Because family car- egivers in palliative care may be in need of support during bereavement, the TRIG could be an important instrument to measure their grief reac- tions. Hence it needs to be validated for further use in palliative care. Aim: The aim was to evaluate measurement properties of the TRIG in a sample of bereaved Swedish family caregivers. Methods: In this psychometric study, the TRIG was translated to Swedish according to standard principles. Data were collected from 129 bereaved family caregivers whose loved ones had been enrolled in palliative care units. The family caregivers completed the TRIG and demographic ques- tions six months after the death of the patient. Separate exploratory factor analyses for ordinal responses were used to evaluate the factor structure (i.e. construct validity) for each subscale. Ordinal alpha (α) was used to estimate internal consistency. Results: The exploratory factor analyses showed that both the Past Behaviours and Present Feelings measure one underlying construct, sup- porting construct validity. Internal consistency was satisfactory for both scales, α=0.92 and α=0.95 respectively. Conclusions: The results show that the two subscales of the TRIG Past Behaviours and Present Feelings are unidimensional, i.e., measuring one underlying construct. Hence, the two subscales could be used in palliative care after the patient’s death in order to capture both the past and current levels of grief in family caregivers. However, it is also necessary to con- tinue validating the TRIG in a larger sample. Funding This study was supported by the Swedish cancer society.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Annan medicin och hälsovetenskap -- Övrig annan medicin och hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Other Medical and Health Sciences -- Other Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)