The Good Funeral: Toward an Understanding of Funeral Participation and Satisfaction

This study posits a model of funeral satisfaction in which religiosity predicts general funeral attitudes, which predict levels and types of funeral participation, mediating the relationship between attitudes and satisfaction in a particular bereavement context. Over a thousand respondents rated their attitudes toward funerals in general and evaluated the most recent funeral they had actually attended. The resulting model indicated that religiosity and favorable attitudes, when enacted through participation and involvement, tend to predict funeral satisfaction, in combination with favorable comparisons, and when the deceased was close and the death unexpected or tragic. Evaluations of the funeral, in turn, independently influence a person's general attitudes about funerals. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding funerals and bereavement are explored.