After the yearning scale was published, Harvard psychologist Don Robinaugh assessed yearning with the YSL scale in a much larger clinical sample of treatment-seeking bereaved adults.2 In his study as well, yearning was more closely associated with prolonged grief disorder than with depression. The level of yearning did not vary by gender, race, or cause of death, although those who lost a spouse or a child exhibited higher yearning than other types of kin losses. Yearning was somewhat lower when a longer time since the loss had passed, suggesting that even for those seeking therapy, yearning
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