As part of a longitudinal study of bereavement phenomena in three groups, bereaved
spouses, bereaved adult children and bereaved parents, scale development was carried out using a
pool of bereavement phenomenology questions administered prospectively. The items were derived
from the literature, in particular studies dealing with the measurement of grief/bereavement, as well
as from clinical experience. Factor analysis of theoretically grouped items produced seven subscales,
three of which tapped frequently experienced phenomena in the bereaved. These three subscales
formed the basis of a single measure, labelled the Core Bereavement Items (CBI), which
demonstrated high reliability and sound face and discriminant validity. Preliminary analysis
suggested that the CBI will prove to be a reliable and valid instrument with respect to the measure
of core bereavement phenomena in commonly bereaved groups in Western society.