The National Archive of Grief Support Studies
The National Archive of Grief Support Studies(NAGSS) database provides bibliographical information and summaries of recent articles selected for their relevance to grief and bereavement service providers. The articles that are summarized are selected from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals and are intended to highlight key concepts as well as provide a brief statement of implications for service providers. Bibliographical information may be used to obtain the original article.
Implications of Parental Suicide and Violent Death for Promotion of Resilience of Parentally-Bereaved Children
Authors:
Brown, Ana C.
Sandler, Irwin N.
Tein, Jenn-Yun
Liu, Xianchen
Haine, Rachel A.
Source:
Death Studies: 2007. Vol. 31, pp. 301-335.
Summary
This article examines the question of whether children who experience the suicide of a parent experience unique mental health problems or require different interventions than children who experience the non-violent death of a parent. The authors studied children who had experienced parental death due to a variety of causes, and found very little difference in mental health problems based upon type of death. The authors also studied the role of risk and protective factors in predicting mental health problems for children who have experienced the death of a parent. The researchers found that several risk factors, such as threat appraisal, parental depression, and negative life events, and several protective factors, such as self-esteem, coping efficacy, and positive parenting, had significant associations with various measures of mental health and grief outcomes. However, there was no consistent relationship between type of parental death and risk or protective factors. The authors conclude that when developing intervention programs for children, it is more important to consider the level of mental health problems rather than the specific nature of parental death.
Key words: suicide, homicide, parent, child, intervention, adapt, resilience
Service Provider Implications
When developing intervention programs for children who have experienced the death of a parent, service providers are urged to develop programs that help build protective factors for children, such as strengthening coping skills, self-esteem, and positive parenting within the family. In addition, service providers are urged to help reduce the presence of risk factors. Interventions should address themes related to different causes of parental death, but helping children achieve healthy adaptation is most likely to be achieved when protective factors are strengthened and risk factors reduced.
