Study title

Losing a close relative, either by death or by separation, is common but counts among the major stressful life events possible. A significant part of people (10-15%) experience substantial and persistent distress after such a loss. Meta-analyses indicate that supporting them with interventions is efficient. Recently, internet-based interventions (IBIs) were developed to support grieving individuals and have shown promising results. The best results of the latter were attained with guided IBIs. In particular, our partners Brodbeck, Berger and Znoj (2017) obtained very good results with a cognitive-behaviorally oriented IBI. Two unguided IBIs have addressed grief-related difficulties. They were efficient, but to a lesser degree than guided interventions. This might not only be due to the lack of guidance, but rather because these interventions were restricted in psychotherapeutical tasks and goals. Unguided interventions have the clear advantage of being more cost-effective, because once developed, they can be applied very broadly with limited resources. Thus, the present research project aims at developing an unguided IBI, based on empirically validated tools for promoting mental health restoration and preventing deleterious effects of prolonged grief in vulnerable people after the loss of a close relative. More specifically, we aim to compare Brodbeck and colleagues’ IBI (but without guidance; LIVIA-FR-I) to a new unguided IBI that we will develop (LIVIA-FR-II). It will comprise the following modifications to fill in the actual lacks in unguided IBIs: (a) Accomplishing tasks or exercises carefully reported in agendas or goal attainment scales and coherent regarding the current grief models. (b) Letting participants choose their own way through the program. (c) Fostering activities that promote nurturing relationships and positive interpersonal proximity. (d) Resource-oriented activities inspired by clinical positive psychology. (e) Automated e-mails. (f) A forum...