Annotation: Childhood Bereavement Following Parental Death

Dowdney, Linda

doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00670

Cited by 279 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Research in offspring's bereavement of a parent caused by homicide is sparse, 14 and the few studies that are published are based on small samples. 15 It is known, however, that a parent's unnatural death, and particularly suicide, increases the risk of violent behavior, substance use disorders, serious mental disorders, and suicide in bereaved children.…”

Section: Offspring Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Killing the Mother of One’s Child

Lysell

Dahlin²,

Långström³

et al. 2016

J. Clin. Psychiatry

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Objective: To study possible psychiatric and criminological risk factors of intimate partner femicide (IPF) as well as the bereaved offspring's psychiatric morbidity and premature death. Method: We conducted a nested case-control study, based on Swedish national registries, including all perpetrators of IPF. We computed risk estimates relative to matched population controls, which were compared to those of non-IPF homicide offenders. Exposed children were matched to population controls and followed longitudinally up to 37 years. Offspring outcomes were psychiatric and substance use disorders (according to ICD) self-harm; violent crime; suicide; and premature, all-cause death. Results: We identified 261 male IPF perpetrators and 494 bereaved children from 1973 through 2009. Multivariable logistic regression suggested that major mental disorder (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 5.9; 95% CI, 3.3-10.6) and violent crime convictions (adjusted OR = 4.4; 95% CI, 2.7-7.2) were independent risk factors of IPF, but substance use disorders were not (aOR = 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-1.0). Children exposed to IPF before age 18 years had elevated risks of major mental disorder (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 5.7; 95% Cl, 3.0-10.6), substance use disorders (adjusted HR = 5.8; 95% CI, 2.8-11.9) and self-harm (adjusted HR = 5.7; 95% CI, 3.0-11.1). Offspring 18 years or older at the IPF had an increased risk of completed suicide (adjusted HR = 4.3; 95% CI, 1.3-14.5). Conclusions: Previous major mental disorder and violent behavior were strong independent risk factors for IPF. Bereavement caused by IPF had significant associations with the offspring's future life, especially for those below 18 years of age at exposure. Our findings demonstrate the need of direct support to the exposed offspring by health care providers and social services.

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Section: Offspring Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Killing the Mother of One’s Child

Lysell

Dahlin²,

Långström³

et al. 2016

J. Clin. Psychiatry

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“…While mothers are most likely the primary attachment figure for children, these attachments frequently develop with fathers either as the primary attachment figure or a secondary one (Lamb & Lamb, 1976). Following the death of a parent, girls exhibit greater internalizing problems while boys show greater externalizing difficulties (Dowdney, 2000); males show more behavior problems and females experience more somatic symptoms (Worden, 1996). Umberson and Chen (1994) suggest that the coping mechanisms of the adult son are quite similar to those of his father, while daughters either showed improved functioning or no change after the death possibly as a result of different symbolic value interpreted as a result of the death.…”

Section: Gender and The Loss Of A Parent In Young And Middle Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “How” and “When” of Parental Loss in Adulthood

2015

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In order to evaluate the role of cause of death on the grief responses of parentally bereaved young and middle-aged adults, 400 individuals completed measures assessing their experiences and feelings surrounding the loss of a parent. Respondents included 247 young adults and 155 middle-aged adults. Cause of death was categorized as acute or anticipated with 209 participants reporting the parent's death as acute, while anticipated death was reported by 191 individuals. Results suggested that gender of the adult child and age level of the participant were important factors contributing to the grief response, and women were found to have more difficulty adjusting to the loss of a parent as well as demonstrating a more intense grief response. Young adults were found to be more impacted by the loss of a parent than were middle-aged adults. Those who were single or separated were similarly more impacted versus those who were married, where more young adults were single/separated and more middle-aged adults were married. Cause of death was only mildly influential in influencing responses to parental loss and did not interact with other studied variables. These results point to the importance of support from others in coping with a parent's death as well as for the counseling of bereaved persons who may be at risk for difficulties in coping with the death of a parent and enable a more precise understanding of individual grief processes across the adult lifespan.

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“…Such climates of chaos may compromise young children’s sense of predictability and safety in their homes, both of which have been shown to be critical to their successful acquisition of foundational social, behavioral, and cognitive competencies. Indeed, research has drawn direct links between events that disrupt the stability of poor households (e.g., parental divorce, residential mobility, homelessness) and negative long-term psychological, academic, and behavioral outcomes for children (Amato 2001; Dowdney 2000; Jelleyman and Spencer 2008; Lengua et al 1999; Ziol-Guest and McKenna 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Household instability and self-regulation among poor children

McCoy

Raver

2014

Journal of Children and Poverty

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Past research suggests that poverty may negatively influence children’s psychological and behavioral health by increasing their exposure to chaotic living conditions in the household. The present study provides a descriptive ‘snapshot’ of instability in low-income households, and examines the associations between exposure to major destabilizing events over the course of a year and three domains of poor urban children’s self-regulation. Descriptive analyses suggest that although caregivers from unstable households report higher average levels of health problems and depression, they also have greater assets/savings, are more educated, and are less likely to be immigrants than caregivers from stable households. Results of propensity score-matched regression analyses reveal that high levels of household instability are significantly and negatively associated with preschoolers’ effortful control and global attention/impulsivity control, but not with their executive function. Children from mildly unstable homes (i.e., those who had experienced a single destabilizing event in the past year) showed no significant differences in any domain of self-regulation relative to their peers from stable households, suggesting a dose-response relationship between the number of destabilizing events experienced by children and their outcomes. Implications for theories of poverty-related adversity, stress, and parenting are discussed in addition to future directions for research.

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Annotation: Childhood Bereavement Following Parental Death

Cited by 279 publications

References 57 publications

Killing the Mother of One’s Child

Killing the Mother of One’s Child

The “How” and “When” of Parental Loss in Adulthood

Household instability and self-regulation among poor children

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