TY - JOUR
T1 - Children Facing Parental Cancer Versus Parental Death
T2 - The Buffering Effects of Positive Parenting and Emotional Expression
AU - Howell, Kathryn H.
AU - Barrett-Becker, Ellen P.
AU - Burnside, Amanda N.
AU - Wamser-Nanney, Rachel
AU - Layne, Christopher M.
AU - Kaplow, Julie B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank Michelle Belke, Alena Grieser, Heather Hammerstrom, Harriett Jones, Georgia Stamatopoulos, and Amanda Tarantowski for their assistance with conducting interviews. We also thank Britney Wardecker and Emilie Lerner for their assistance with project coordination. We greatly appreciate the help of Damia December, Valerie Elsesser, Joanna Gross, Kara Koppinger, Mirele Mann, Meredith Merlanti, Michael Shain, Jerri Bamberger, Monica Arkin, Maggie O’Reilly Treter, Megan Ramthun, Madison Kraus, and Hannah Wolfson for their assistance with data management and data entry. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the Gilda’s Club of Grand Rapids staff for their administrative support, and all participating children, parents, and guardians. This research was supported in part by Grants NIMH K08 MH76078, Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research Grant, Todd Ouida Clinical Scholars Award, the Rachel Upjohn Clinical Scholars Award, the Laurence Polatsch Memorial Fund, and the Lynn Wilson Memorial Fund given to Dr. Kaplow.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The serious illness or death of a caregiver are two of the most distressing events that can befall a child, and are often temporally linked. Although both adversities may impact children’s mental health, studies have not yet attempted to disentangle the effects of parental illness versus those of parental death with regard to children’s psychological functioning. Further, there has been little empirical investigation of potential factors that may diminish risk for psychopathology following either of these adversities. The current study evaluated levels of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in youth age 7–13 grappling with either parental cancer (N = 31) or parental death (N = 32) and examined potential predictors of these mental health outcomes across both groups of children. Youth contending with parental cancer exhibited lower levels of PTSS than children who had experienced the death of a parent, but both groups exhibited similar levels of anxiety and depression. Expressive coping was associated with lower levels of PTSS, anxiety, and depression across both groups. An interaction effect revealed that for the bereaved group only, positive parental reinforcement and supportive caregiver communication were inversely associated with PTSS. These findings provide a foundation for future work designed to identify factors associated with distinct mental health outcomes among children facing parental cancer and/or parental death.
AB - The serious illness or death of a caregiver are two of the most distressing events that can befall a child, and are often temporally linked. Although both adversities may impact children’s mental health, studies have not yet attempted to disentangle the effects of parental illness versus those of parental death with regard to children’s psychological functioning. Further, there has been little empirical investigation of potential factors that may diminish risk for psychopathology following either of these adversities. The current study evaluated levels of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in youth age 7–13 grappling with either parental cancer (N = 31) or parental death (N = 32) and examined potential predictors of these mental health outcomes across both groups of children. Youth contending with parental cancer exhibited lower levels of PTSS than children who had experienced the death of a parent, but both groups exhibited similar levels of anxiety and depression. Expressive coping was associated with lower levels of PTSS, anxiety, and depression across both groups. An interaction effect revealed that for the bereaved group only, positive parental reinforcement and supportive caregiver communication were inversely associated with PTSS. These findings provide a foundation for future work designed to identify factors associated with distinct mental health outcomes among children facing parental cancer and/or parental death.
KW - Attachment
KW - Childhood bereavement
KW - Coping
KW - Parental death
KW - Parental illness
KW - Parent–child communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84953366396&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84953366396&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10826-015-0198-3
DO - 10.1007/s10826-015-0198-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84953366396
SN - 1062-1024
VL - 25
SP - 152
EP - 164
JO - Journal of Child and Family Studies
JF - Journal of Child and Family Studies
IS - 1
ER -