Harnessing relational savoring to mitigate grief: evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention for bereaved older adults

Abstract

Grief often causes emotional distress, especially among older adults after the loss of a partner. Relational savoring (i.e., intentionally focusing on moments of interpersonal connection) offers a novel approach to mitigate grief by priming positive emotions. This study investigated the effectiveness of savoring enduring connections to one’s lost partner as an intervention to support bereaved older adults. In a randomized online pretest-posttest experiment, 296 bereaved older adults engaged in either a relational savoring intervention or a control writing task. Relational savoring produced significantly greater reductions in grief, compared to the control condition. Mediational analyses revealed that relational savoring produced higher levels of positive affect and meaning, each of which in turn independently predicted larger pretest-posttest reductions in grief. These findings indicate that relational savoring can effectively improve quality of life in older adults grieving the loss of their partner, thus supporting its use as a grief intervention.