2.1.5 Statistical analysis

2.1.5 Statistical analysis

Sample characteristics for both the intervention and comparison groups were analyzed to determine the comparability of the two groups. Independent T-test/Mann-Whitney U tests were used to examine whether there were any differences between groups for the continuous variables. The Chi-square test was used to examine the difference in categorical variables.

Psychosocial outcomes before and after the Be-with service (within the intervention group), and psychosocial outcomes (after the funeral) between the intervention group and the comparison group were analyzed. To examine whether there was any service effect within the intervention group, any differences in psychosocial outcomes before and after the service, paired sample t-test/Wilcoxon signed-rank test was first performed to examine changes of scores in different outcomes. Furthermore, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was adopted to examine whether there was a significant difference between the intervention group and the comparison group in each measuring dimension after the funeral, using the significantly different sample characteristics between the two groups as covariates. A two side-significance test (p < 0.05) was applied. The magnitude of the effects between the intervention and the comparison groups was displayed as a partial η2 effect size. For η2, results larger than 0.14 are considered large effects. All analyses were carried out using IBM’s SPSS version 25.

QUALITATIVE FINDINGS3