Anticipatory grief in families of people with kidney failure

Abstract

    There is no doubt that living with chronic illnesses represents a significant challenge, especially when it comes to close family members. Families of people with kidney failure, in particular, face unique circumstances that place them in constant confrontation with the possibility of their loved ones' deteriorating health and loss. This ongoing confrontation generates complex feelings that take the form of what is known as anticipatory grief. This type of grief is characterized by dealing with potential loss before it occurs, affecting their psychological and social quality of life. Accordingly, this study aims to measure anticipatory grief among families with kidney failure and to examine the significance of differences in anticipatory grief among those with kidney failure according to the variables (gender and age). To achieve the study objectives, the researcher adopted the Anticipatory Grief Scale (Al-Hayali, 2022), built according to the Rando (1986) model. The final version of the scale consists of (27) items. The psychometric properties of the scale's validity and reliability were extracted, and appropriate statistical methods were used to extract the results of the current study.

 The results of the current study indicated that families with kidney failure experience anticipatory grief, and there is  There are statistically significant differences in anticipatory grief according to the gender variable (males, females), and there are no statistically significant differences according to the age variable.