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funeral services/arrangements is a separate interest from establishing the relevance of cremation customs for adaptation in general and grief in particular: Establishing satisfaction with a service is not equivalent to assessment of its association with grief. Finally, a few studies have directly addressed reactions to aspects of the funeral in relation to adaptation to the loss. Gamino et al. (2000) reported that those who found the funeral comforting and/or participated in planning showed less grief later on. There was indication that high scores on the measure of grief were associated with the occurrence of adverse funeral events (combined with not 374 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 81(3) feeling comforted). Although this comes close to our research interest, the study had certain limitations. Importantly, it was conducted retrospectively, not prospectively, with assessment of the funeral taking place at the same—much later—time as the measure of grief intensity. Thus, it is likely that the negative perceptions about the funeral arrangements were colored by the high level of grief at the later time point when both of these were measured. Nevertheless, these authors drew attention to two potentially critical phenomena: They examined how funeral participation and the occurrence of adverse funeral events may be associated with grief adjustment and they pinpointed the possibility that if matters to do with the funeral go wrong, this may be associated with troubled grief. A longitudinal study conducted by Wijngaards-de Meij et al. (2008) examined the specific impact over time of circumstances surrounding death and burial. This investigation compared grief levels following cremation or burial. Similar levels of grief were found irrespective of the choice, as measured over time. In this study saying goodbye, presenting the body for viewing, was associated with lower levels of grief over time.
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