Grief is a natural response to the death of a loved one. Grief may vary between individuals and across time. When grief reactions are so intense that they disrupt daily functioning, a prolonged grief disorder (PGD) may apply. Most studies on PGD rely on cross-sectional survey data, which provide insights into between-person differences but are impossible to examine within person moment-to-moment changes in grief reactions. The Grief in Daily Life (Grief-ID) archive addresses this gap by providing harmonized datasets from ecological momentary assessment (EMA) projects. The use of EMA captures time- and context-dependent changes, disentangles between-person from within-person effects, reduces recall bias, and offers a more ecologically valid assessment of grief reactions. The archive complies with Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) research guiding principles and provides extensive metadata corresponding to each principle. Researchers are encouraged to reuse and contribute data to the Grief-ID archive, thereby furthering our understanding of grief in daily life.

Data Collection

Version 1.0 of the archive includes 315 participants and 22,050 EMA measurement points. On average, participants responded to 43.77 ESM notifications in total, with the median being 50, on a scale from 1 to 70, which reflects an overall compliance rate of 71%. Individuals aged 18 years and above were eligible to participate. People diagnosed with a psychotic disorder or those reporting suicidal ideation, assessed at baseline, were excluded from participation. The studies included in Version 1.0 consisted of three distinct phases of data collection. First, the initial baseline measures included questions assessing sociodemographic, loss characteristics, measures of psychopathology, and other measures. Second, the ESM phase was conducted using the Avicenna application (Avicenna Research, 2024). Participants rated the intensity of PGD symptoms and contextual factors five times a day, for a period of 14 days. Third, the final phase of the study was conducted following the ESM phase. In this phase, psychopathology symptoms were assessed in a manner consistent with that employed in phase one. Differences in recruitment strategies and inclusion criteria between the three different projects are outlined in supporting information.

Accessibility

To receive the data file, you are required to pre-register your study for the use of the Grief-ID Archive. More details can be found in the Data Access Protocol. Please complete the Data Access Protocol and send it to the designated points of contact listed in the data accessibility instructions. All metadata is openly available.

More Information

A detailed description of the archive, methodology, and datasets can be found in the accompanying data note: https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12452.80004