In this state-of-the-art volume, leading international scholars and clinicians provide a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary overview of how rigorous research on bereavement translates into practice. They identify new developments and controversies in the field, relating new theories to concepts from attachment and emotion theory. The effects of societal change and of national and international events on personal and public mourning are examined, along with other areas of interest to practitioners, such as cultural competence in helping diverse clients cope with grief and bereavement. New analyses employ longitudinal data sets to more clearly trace patterns of adjustment, trajectories of grieving over time, and the use of coping resources.

The contributors also explore emerging research on the consequences of losing a loved one; "disenfranchised" grieving, and other critical areas. Researchers and practitioners will find useful discussions of innovations in research design and quantitative and qualitative measurement, and the efficacy of intervention programs. Other chapters explore the current controversy over including complicated grief in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.