Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the Prolonged Grief Disorder - Caregiver Form (PG-12), which is used to measure grief symptoms of caregivers providing care to their relatives with a chronic diseases that cause functional disability to Turkish and to investigate its psychometric properties. We also aimed to investigate the prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in the caregiver sample.
Method: The sample consisted of 120 adult participants (70.8% female) who acted as caregivers. The participants were administered Prolonged Grief Disorder-Caregiver Form, Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Life Satisfaction Scale.
Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single-factor structure of PG-12, consistent with the original form, was supported. PG-12 scores showed a positive correlation with depression and caregiver burden scores and a negative correlation with life satisfaction scores. The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was 0.85. The prevalence of prolonged grief disorder calculated using PG-12 was found to be 31.66%.
Conclusion: The results showed that PG-12 is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the grief symptoms of people who provides care for a relative. In addition, the prevalence of prolonged grief disorder in our study population was high. Additional studies are needed in Turkey to confirm this rate and develop new strategies for caregivers.
Keywords: Anticipatory Grief; Caregiver; Prolonged Grief Disorder; Validity Reliability..