The Effectiveness of Undergraduates as Trained Listeners for the Bereaved: A Pilot Study of Impact on Symptoms and Cognitions (2009 - Present)

Co-Investigator:  Bonita Cade, Roger Williams University
Co-Investigator:  Kim Knight, Roger Williams University 

Abstract:  This project is designed to train students to be effective but "non-intervening" listeners to those experiencing uncomplicated grief  in reaction to the loss of a loved one within the current year. This is a pilot study to determine the impact, if any,  on the negative cognitions related to grief and the self reported physical responses of having three sessions with a listener who allows the bereaved to talk about their loss as they are experiencing it without guidance, intervention or judgment.

Students who have taken a Psychology of Loss class , will be trained during the summer to be supportive listeners who will not give advice to the bereaved. They will also receive in depth information regarding the current research in the area of the subjective experience of different types losses. Subsequent to the summer training, students will participate in three recorded sessions home visits with  a bereaved family member in ed as a trained  listener. The home visits and other related research activities will serve as the required internship for the student under the supervision of investigator Cade who will review recorded audio tapes between visits. During the following semester students will accomplish a qualitative analysis of the home visits and a quantitative analysis of the two dependent measures that will be administered during the initial telephone contact, during the first and third session and during the follow-up telephone contact.

Research participants respond to two questionnaire The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Grief Cognition Question (GCQ) on two occasions each. Participants in the control group will be involved with one in home visit by the trained listener. Participants in the experimental condition will receive three home visits from a trained listener. Because of the nature of an in home visit, it is expected that other family members maybe present but that one person will be identified as the family reporter. Families with children below the age of 10 will not be participants.

Specific Aims: 

1.  All students will receive training in:

1. the theoretical underpinnings of the bereavement process

2. theories of intervention

3. skill training in telephone interviewing

4. the administration of instruments by phone

5. skill training in active and supportive listening that avoids intervention

2.  The hypotheses of this pilot research are as follows:

1. there will be a change between the score on the initial dependent measure and the subsequent administration of the measures for both the control group and the experimental group

2. the change for the experimental group will be larger than the change for the control group

3. those in the experimental group will demonstrate fewer somatic complaints as identified by the General Health Questionnaire than those in the control group

4. those in the experimental group will have less negative cognitions related to bereavement than will those in the control group