Objective To investigate the current status and influencing factors of anticipatory grief of main caregivers of young and middle-aged patients with advanced liver cancer by cross-sectional survey.Methods A total of 330 caregivers of young and middle-aged patients with advanced liver cancer who were admitted to The Third Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from January 2023 to May 2023 were enrolled as research objects by convenience sampling.A questionnaire survey on general information,anticipatory grief and simple coping style was conducted on these caregivers one day before discharge.Results The score of anticipatory grief of the caregivers was 94.10±22.33.Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis was performed with statistically significant data from the characteristics of the research objects as independent variables and anticipatory grief as the dependent variable,and the result showed that gender,monthly income,educational level,personality self-assessment and coping were main factors affecting anticipatory grief of main caregivers of young and middle-aged patients with advanced liver cancer(all P<0.05).The mean score for positive response was 2.23±0.14,which was negatively associated with anticipatory grief(P=0.041).The mean score for negative response was 1.31±0.24,which was positively associated with anticipatory grief(P<0.001).Conclusion The anticipatory grief of main caregivers of young and middle-aged patients with advanced liver cancer is at a high level.The anticipatory grief is negatively related to positive coping,and positively related to negative coping.The main factors affecting anticipatory grief of main caregivers of young and middle-aged patients with advanced liver cancer are gender,family economic status,educational level,and introverted personality.