Racial Differences in Early Parental Death, Midlife Life Problems, and Relationship Strain With Adult Children.

OBJECTIVES: Black Americans typically experience the death of a parent earlier in the life course than do non-Hispanic Whites, and early parental death is known to hinder subsequent relationship outcomes. Whether early parental death may contribute to racial differences in midlife family relationships and the role midlife adults' current life problems play remain unexplored. METHOD: Using multilevel modeling, we examined how timing of parental death is associated with relationship strain with adult children and whether the association differs by midlife adults' life problems in Black (n = 166) and non-Hispanic White (n = 467) families from the Family Exchanges Study. RESULTS: Losing a parent in childhood was associated with more relationship strain with adult children for Black midlife adults, but not for their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Among the bereaved, earlier timing of parental death was associated with more relationship strain with adult children only for Black midlife adults. In both bereaved and nonbereaved sample, participants' recent physical-emotional problems exacerbated the link between timing of parental death and relationship strain with adult children for Black midlife adults. DISCUSSION: Experiencing the death of a parent in the early life course can be an added structural disadvantage that imposes unique challenges for Black Americans in midlife. Policies and programs aimed at supporting bereaved children may benefit relationships with their own children later in life, and addressing physical-emotional problems in midlife may be a viable intervention point for those midlife adults who experienced the death of a parent in the early life course.

The unequal distribution of sibling and parent deaths by race and its effect on attaining a college degree.

PURPOSE: Examine (1) the distribution of experiencing the death of a parent or sibling (family death) by race/ethnicity and (2) how a family death affects attaining a college degree. METHODS: Participants (n = 8984) were from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 aged 13-17 at baseline in 1997 and 29-32 in 2013. We examined the prevalence of family deaths by age group and race/ethnicity and used covariate-adjusted logistic regression to assess the relationship between a family death and college degree attainment. RESULTS: A total of 4.2% of white youth experienced a family death, as did 5.0% of Hispanics, 8.3% of Blacks, 9.1% of Asians, and 13.8% of American Indians (group test P < .001). A family death from ages 13-22 was associated with lower odds of obtaining a bachelor's degree by ages 29-32 (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.50, 0.84), compared with no family death. The effect of a death was largest during college years (age 19-22) (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.39, 0.82). CONCLUSIONS: Young people of color are more likely to have a sibling or parent die; and family death during college years is associated with reduced odds of obtaining a college degree. Racial disparities in mortality might affect social determinants of health of surviving relatives, and college policies are a potential intervention point.

"Every time that month comes, I remember": using cognitive interviews to adapt grief measures for use with bereaved adolescents in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: To assess standard grief measures through cognitive interviews with bereaved adolescents in Free State, South Africa, and make recommendations designed to improve the measurement of grief in this and similar populations. METHODS: Twenty-one parentally bereaved adolescents participated in semi-structured cognitive interviews about the Core Bereavement Items (CBI) questionnaire, Grief Cognitions Questionnaire for Children (GCQ-C), or Intrusive Griefs Thoughts Scale (IGTS). RESULTS: Interviewees offered valuable insights for improving grief measurement with this population (e.g., consensus that not thinking frequently about a deceased loved one was shameful, aversion to terms including "died"). Participants were better able to apply response options denoting specific frequencies (e.g., "once or twice a week") versus general ones (e.g., "a little bit of the time"). Questions intended to gauge grief commonly elicited responses reflecting the impact of loss on adolescents' basic survival instead of psychological wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: The need for psychological support is high among orphans and vulnerable children. Tools for measuring psychological outcomes can provide evidence of programme effects and guide decision making about investment. Grief measures used with adolescents in South Africa should account for the issues raised by cognitive interviewees in the study, including question and response option complexity, linguistic preferences, and cultural norms.

Parental HIV/AIDS and psychological health of younger children in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: We examined several indicators of psychological health in a sample of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) to determine if there were significant differences between those orphaned by AIDS and those orphaned by other causes, and if there were gender differences. METHOD: Our sample consisted of 119 young children (ages 6-10 years) who participated in a non-governmental organisation (NGO)-supported social services programme in a low-resource, non-urban community in South Africa. We collected data on three groups: non-orphans (OVC1; n = 45); orphans due to AIDS (OVC2; n = 43); and other orphans (OVC3; n = 31). Parents of non-orphans and legal guardians of orphans rated their children on a 112-item, age appropriate Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), South Africa version. RESULTS: Children in the OVC2 group were significantly different from their peers on Internalising Problems and Somatic Complaints, while OVC3 group had a higher proportion of children in the at-risk range on Social Problems compared to OVC2. Females had elevated scores on the anxious/depressed, internalising problems, total problems, and sluggish cognitive tempo scales compared to males. There was an interaction between factors, such that boys in OVC2 had elevated mean scores on Somatic Complaints. These findings suggest increased vulnerability for girls on emotional issues and for boys on somatic problems.

Traumatic and complicated grief among children: one or two constructs?

The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of traumatic and complicated grief among children. Some authors seemingly use the concepts interchangeably, whereas others make a distinction between the two. A sample of 240 mainly parentally bereaved children were administered the Extended Grief Inventory (EGI). Two confirmatory factor analyses were run to examine the EGI factor structure and to determine whether traumatic and complicated grief are one or two concepts. Goodness-of-fit tests for the two models was considered acceptable for both models, however, the two-factor model was a better fit. Multiple regression analyses found that children's age, gender, and ethnicity were important predictors of traumatic grief but only gender was a predictor of complicated grief. Violent death was a predictor of complicated grief in an unadjusted regression analysis.

A life history of a Korean adolescent girl who attempted suicide.

The present study explores the life history of a South Korean adolescent girl who attempted suicide. The study focuses on how sociocultural values affected her suicide attempt and how she made meaning out of the experience. The results revealed that her life history was a process of seeking independence and autonomy, and freeing herself from social stigmatization. The study highlights the need for professionals to examine the sociocultural context of adolescents, along with a consideration of their developmental characteristics and family relationships in order to understand adolescent suicidal behaviors.