Many factors affect how someone meets their grief and these may differ even in the same person depending on the loss and other factors present in his or her life at the time.

Nature of the loss – Complex, sudden, multiple losses, traumatic, disenfranchised – all of these can intensify or make the grief experience more difficult.

Role reorganization: In order to function, families develop roles, rules, communication patterns, expectations and behaviours. When someone dies a void is created in the family dynamic. To continue to function everyone has to shuffle, divide and reassign roles to different family members. This can often make the process of coping more complicated.

Unfinished business – When issues were not addressed or resolved between the bereaved and the deceased, including guilt or regrets.