New York — Researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Weill Cornell Medicine have successfully developed and validated the first Hindi-language tool for diagnosing Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), a significant breakthrough for Hindi-speaking communities in the United States.
The new assessment scale, called PG-13-R-H (Prolonged Grief Disorder Scale – Hindi Version), enables clinicians and mental health professionals to identify grief-related mental illness among Hindi speakers who have lost loved ones.
Key Facts
• The validation study surveyed 527 Hindi-speaking adults across the United States, with strong reliability demonstrated through a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.75, published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine
• Among study participants, 15.6 percent met diagnostic thresholds for prolonged grief disorder, with 41.7 percent reporting COVID-19–related deaths and 88.6 percent experiencing unexpected losses
• The research team included Dr. Apeksha Mewani (Lehman College), Dr. Vincent Jones II (York College), Sungwoo Kim, Dr. Kim Glickman, and scale originator Dr. Holly G. Prigerson (Weill Cornell Medicine)
Prolonged Grief Disorder represents a mental health condition marked by persistent yearning and emotional pain that disrupts normal functioning long after the death of a loved one. Until this validation study, Hindi-speaking individuals experiencing prolonged grief had no culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tool to help identify their condition.
The original PG-13 scale was created by Dr. Prigerson years ago to give clinical recognition to grief that becomes prolonged and debilitating, leading to its inclusion in the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 diagnostic frameworks.
The research team recruited Hindi-speaking adults both online and through community outreach in Queens, New York, a borough celebrated for its rich linguistic and cultural diversity. Participants in the study completed the PG-13-R-H alongside other mental health questionnaires to assess reliability and validity across different measures.
The Hindi version demonstrated strong validity, with convergent validity supported by correlation with depressive symptoms and discriminant validity confirmed by proper differentiation from general well-being measures.
According to Dr. Apeksha Mewani, the lead author and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Equity, Administration, and Technology at Lehman College:
This sentiment reflects the broader mission of the research team to eliminate language as a barrier to mental health care.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted study findings, with a substantial portion of participants reporting pandemic-related bereavement. The high prevalence of unexpected losses among the sample—88.
6 percent—highlights how disruptions in family-based mourning rituals and limited support systems intensify grief experiences among Hindi-speaking diaspora communities. These findings underscore the importance of culturally adapted grief support services tailored to community needs.
Dr. Vincent Jones II, Assistant Professor of Community Health and Director of the Health Promotion Center at York College, emphasized:
Community health workers, counselors, and clinicians now have a reliable tool to identify prolonged grief and connect Hindi-speaking individuals with appropriate mental health support.
The PG-13-R-H directly addresses long-standing linguistic and cultural barriers that have prevented Hindi-speaking Americans from accessing timely mental health diagnosis and treatment. Health equity advocates emphasize that language-specific assessment tools are essential for identifying at-risk individuals in diasporic communities.
This validation represents a significant step toward culturally inclusive mental health care across the United States.
Dr. Holly G. Prigerson, the scale's originator and senior author, reflected on the broader significance:
York College and Lehman College have reaffirmed their commitment to advancing equity in mental health research and ensuring diverse communities receive culturally and linguistically inclusive care.
Do You Know?
Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages globally, yet until this 2026 validation study, no evidence-based mental health assessment tool existed specifically for diagnosing grief-related mental illness in Hindi-speaking populations. This gap in mental health research highlighted the critical need for culturally adapted diagnostic tools across multiple languages and communities.
Key Terms
• Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) — A mental health condition officially recognized in the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 characterized by enduring yearning and emotional pain that interferes with daily functioning long after bereavement
• Cronbach's Alpha — A statistical measure of internal consistency or reliability of a test or scale, with scores closer to 1.0 indicating stronger reliability; the PG-13-R-H scored 0.75, demonstrating adequate reliability
• Validity — The degree to which an assessment tool accurately measures what it is designed to measure; this study confirmed both convergent and discriminant validity of the Hindi version
• Diaspora Communities — Populations of people living outside their country of origin, in this case Hindi-speaking Americans separated from their home communities and traditional support systems
• Convergent Validity — The extent to which a measure correlates with other measures designed to assess similar constructs, such as the connection between prolonged grief and depression symptoms in this study
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