Grief trajectories in men and women: A linear mixed model approach
(2026) International Journal of Psychology — Vol. 61, n° 2, p. e70183 (2026)
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- Authors
Redondo Armenteros, Andrea 
Fernández‐Alcántara, Manuel Cherblanc, Jacques
- Abstract
- Gender differences in grief expression have been widely studied, yet findings remain inconsistent. Some research reports higher grief intensity in women, while others find no difference. Two possible explanations are: (a) the neglect of third variables interacting with gender, and (b) men and women follow distinct grief trajectories. This study employed an observational longitudinal design to examine both hypotheses using data from Canada, Belgium, and Spain. A total of 1,328 bereaved adults were assessed between two and five times at different post-loss intervals. Sociodemographic, loss-related, grief, and psychopathological variables were collected. Linear mixed models identified predictors of grief symptomatology and compared trajectories by gender. Results revealed significant gender differences in grief intensity, even after adjusting for other variables. However no significant interaction between gender and time was found, indicating that men and women differ in intensity but follow similar grief trajectories. These findings may reflect gendered emotional socialization: women may be more socially conditioned toward introspection and verbalization, which are more readily detected by standard assessment tools. Conversely, men’s grief expression may be underestimated by existing instruments. Methodologically, the underrepresentation of men in grief research and the reliance on tools built on narrow conceptualizations of grief limit generalizability.
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Citations
Redondo Armenteros, A., Zech, E., Fernández‐Alcántara, M., Cherblanc, J., Côté, I., Bergeron‐Leclerc, C., Cruz‐Quintana, F., Pérez‐Marfil, M. N., & Boever, C. (2026). Grief trajectories in men and women: A linear mixed model approach. International Journal of Psychology, 61(2), e70183. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.70183 (Original work published 2026)