Table 2.

Potential risk or protective factors in bereavement^a

Circumstances of death	Cause of death: sudden, expected, traumatic, suicide
	Circumstances: multiple losses, witnessing extreme distress in dying phase
	Lost relationship: spouse, child
	Quality of relationship with deceased
	Concurrent stresses: financial hardship resulting from loss
Intrapersonal factors intrinsic to person who is bereaved	Personality style: optimism, high self-esteem, secure attachment
	Predisposing factors: pre-bereavement depression, previous bereavements
	Religious beliefs and other meaning systems
	Sociodemographic: widowers, children, ethnic group
Interpersonal factors	Social support: social isolation, cultural and social embedding
	Economic: income has little effect
	Professional support and intervention
Coping strategies	Grief work: sharing, disclosure, avoidance, repression
	Emotional regulation: combination of confrontation and avoidance

^aTaken from Stroebe et al (2007)² and reproduced with permission.