Abstract
The death of a parent in childhood represents a profound psychological insult. Although a number of studies have examined rates of depression and anxiety in bereaved children, less attention has been given to understanding predictors of children's adjustment to the loss. Data are presented from 83 families with schoolage children in which a parent had died of cancer in the preceding 18 months. The surviving parent and one randomly selected child completed individual interviews conducted by a clinician in the families' homes. Using multiple regression, potential predictors of children's psychosocial adjustment to parental death are examined and their relative importance is discussed. Among the predictors considered were child's age, child's gender, deceased parent's gender, time since death, length of illness, presence of siblings, and parental communication patterns. The child's perception of the surviving parent's level of openness in parental communication was found to be significantly correlated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and state anxiety in bereaved children. Boys reported lower levels of depressive symptoms than did girls, and older children reported lower levels of state anxiety than did younger children.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 165-180 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Journal of Youth and Adolescence |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by grants from the American Cancer Society (PRB-24A) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH41967). 1Associate Director, Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness, Columbia University School of Public Health, New York. Received her Ph.D. in Sociology from ColumbiaUniversity. Current research interests are the psychosocial consequences of serious illness to family members. To whom correspondence should be addressed at Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness, Columbia University,School of Public Health, 100 Haven Avenue, Suite 6A, New York,New York, 10032. 2Director, Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness. Received Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University.Current interests are psychosocial adaptation to serious andlife-threatening illness. 3Senior Research Analyst,Center for the Psychological Study of Healthand Illness.Received M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Interests are family members' psychosocial concerns associated with cancer patients' illness.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Social Psychology
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
