Individual and systemic variables associated with prolonged grief and other emotional distress in bereaved children

by Paul A. Boelen, Mariken Spuij Most children confronted with the death of a loved one do not experience persisting psychological problems. However, for some, acute grief reactions develop into prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and other mental health problems. Research findings suggest that bereavement outcomes in children are ass ociated with negative cognitions and avoidant coping and with different parenting behaviours. However, knowledge about factors influencing grief in children is still limited and few studies have examined the relative impact of psychological (individual-level) variables and systemic (family-level) va riables in affecting their responses to loss. The aim of the current study was to examine the association of different bereavement outcomes in 8–18 year old children (including levels of self-rated PGD, depression, and posttraumatic stress (PTS)) with sociodemographic variables, individual-level v ariables (including negative cognitions and anxious and depressive avoidance), and family-level variables (including the severity of caregiver’s PGD, depression, and anxiety, and indices of parenting behaviours, rated both by children and by their caregivers). Questionnaire data were used from 159 children plus one of their caregivers, gathered as part of the pre-treatment assessment in a randomized controlled trial. Results showed that most of the children’s bereavement outcomes, including PGD severity and PTS severity, were associated with indices of ne...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research