“Those conversations are extremely vivid in my mind some 40+ years later. They haunt me.” investigating reconstrual, final conversations, and posttraumatic growth in a military context

Despite notable stressors associated with military service, research on end-of-life (EOL) communication in this context remains scarce. We situate this study in the opportunity model for presence during the end-of-life process (OMP) and include retrospective accounts of final conversations (FCs) among active-duty military and veterans to explore how emotion regulation specifically, reconstrual and recounting, as potential pathways to positive bereavement outcomes, particularly posttraumatic growth. Using mixed-methods, we surveyed U.S. military members and veterans about their experiences having a final conversation with someone close before their death. Qualitative results showed that participants' experiences aligned and deviated from elements of the original constructs of the OMP and final conversations. Themes of expectations, connection, and emotional processing functioned as factors that enabled or constrained presence during the EOL process. Quantitative results showed that the amount of reconstrual during FCs was positively associated with posttraumatic growth. We discuss results and directions for future research.