Perinatal Bereavement Grief Scale: distinguishing grief from depression following miscarriage

The study evaluated the Perinatal Bereavement Grief Scale (PBGS), the first scale designed to measure grieffollowing reproductive loss in terms of yearning for the lost pregnancy and lost baby. Participants included 304 women interviewed by telephone I to 3 times within 6 months aftermiscarriage. The PBGS had high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It showed convergent validity with measures of attachment and investment in the child and divergent validity against measures of social desirability and depressive symptoms, supporting the conceptual distinction between grief and depression. Cross-cultural validity was acceptable whether tested by language (Spanish vs. English) or ethnicity (Hispanic vs. other). This measure of yearning enables study of the epidemiology and prognostic value of this key feature of mourning.