scholarly journals The Family Bereavement Program: Description of a Theory-based Prevention Program for Parentally-Bereaved Children and Adolescents

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim S. Ayers ◽  
Sharlene A. Wolchik ◽  
Irwin N. Sandler ◽  
Joan L. Twohey ◽  
Janelle Lutzke Weyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Parental Death ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Concurrent Programs ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Bereaved Children ◽  
The Family ◽  
Program Description ◽  
Future Work

This article describes a preventive intervention to promote resilience of parentally bereaved youth. This intervention includes separate but concurrent programs for youth and caregivers that were developed to change empirically-supported risk and protective factors. We first discuss the risk that parental death confers to youth mental health and social adaptation outcomes. Next, we discuss the theoretical framework underlying this program. After describing the content and structure of the program, we describe the results of an experimental field trial and discuss directions for future work.

Reducing suicide risk in parentally bereaved youth through promoting effective parenting: testing a developmental cascade model

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Na Zhang ◽  
Irwin Sandler ◽  
Jenn-Yun Tein ◽  
Sharlene Wolchik
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Parental Death ◽  
At Risk Youth ◽  
Emotion Suppression ◽  
Effective Parenting ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Family

Abstract Children who experience parental death are at increased risk for suicide. The Family Bereavement Program (FBP) is an upstream preventive intervention for parentally bereaved families that was found to reduce suicide risk in parentally bereaved youth up to 6 and 15 years later. We tested whether FBP-induced improvements in effective parenting led to changes in multiple proximal factors that prior theory and research implicated in the cascading pathway to suicide risk, namely, aversive self-views, caregiver connectedness, peer connectedness, complicated grief, depressive symptoms, and emotion suppression. The sample was 244 bereaved youth and their surviving caregiver from 156 families. Families were randomized into the FBP (12 group-based sessions for parents, youth, and two joint sessions) or a literature control condition. Multimethod and multiinformant data were collected at baseline, posttest, 6-year and 15-year follow-up assessments. Results showed that program-induced improvements in effective parenting at posttest were associated with reduced aversive self-views and increased caregiver connectedness at the 6-year follow-up, and each mediator was in turn associated with reduced suicide risk at the 6- and 15-year follow-up. The mediated pathways via aversive self-views remained significant while controlling for caregiver connectedness. Self-related concepts may be important targets in upstream suicide prevention for at-risk youth.

Promoting the Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved Children

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Howarth
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Stressful Life Events ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Parental Death ◽  
Psychological Development ◽  
Childhood Bereavement ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Bereaved Children ◽  
Death Of A Parent ◽  
Detrimental Impact

The death of a parent is one of the most stressful life events to encounter during childhood. Given its detrimental impact on psychological development, a better understanding of outcomes associated with childhood bereavement and factors that affect these outcomes is necessary. The adjustment of bereaved children is linked to such factors as age of the child, sex of child and parent, circumstances of parent death, and the adjustment of the surviving caregiver. In this article I highlight considerations that may increase children's positive adjustment to parental death and also discuss specific treatment recommendations.

Parental Death and the Adjustment of School-Age Children

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. William Worden ◽  
Phyllis R. Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Parental Death ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Bereaved Children ◽  
The Difference ◽  
One Year

Findings on the emotional impact of parental death for dependent children have not been consistent due to serious methodological limitations. The Child Bereavement Study investigated a community-based sample of parentally bereaved children and compared their responses to those from matched non-bereaved controls. Children and their surviving parent were assessed four months, one year, and two years after the death using standardized instrumentation. Most of the difference between the two groups was not obvious until two years after the death. The bereaved showed higher levels of social withdrawal, anxiety, and social problems as well as lower self-esteem and self-efficacy. Although most bereaved children do not show signs of serious emotional/behavioral disturbance, there is a significantly large group of bereaved children who show serious problems at one year (19%) and at two years (21%).

Reducing suicide risk in parentally bereaved youth through promoting effective parenting: Testing a developmental cascade model.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Zhang ◽  
Irwin Sandler ◽  
Jenn-Yun Tein ◽  
Sharlene Wolchik
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Preventive Intervention ◽  
Emotion Suppression ◽  
Effective Parenting ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Death Of A Parent ◽  
The Family ◽  
Post Test

Children who experience the death of a parent are at increased risk for suicidality. The Family Bereavement Program (FBP) is a preventive intervention for parentally bereaved families that was found to reduce suicidal thoughts or attempts in parentally bereaved youth up to 6 and 15 years later. In this study, we tested whether FBP-induced improvement in parenting led to changes in multiple factors that prior theory and research implicated in the pathway to suicide risk, namely, aversive self-views, caregiver and peer connectedness, grief, depressive symptoms and emotion suppression. The sample was 244 bereaved youth and their surviving caregiver from 156 families. Families were randomized into the FBP (twelve group-based sessions for parents, youth, and two joint sessions) or literature control condition. Caregivers and youth completed baseline, post-test, 6 years and 15 years follow-up assessments. Results showed that program-induced improved parenting at post-test was associated with reduced aversive self-views and increased caregiver connectedness at 6 years follow-up, and each was in turn associated with reduced suicide risk at 6 and 15 years follow-up. The mediated pathways via aversive self-views remained significant while controlling for the pathways via caregiver connectedness. We discussed the theoretical and clinical implications of the findings.

scholarly journals Evaluating Mechanisms: Mapping Weekly Dynamics between Experiential Avoidance and SAD Symptoms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel D. Sarfan ◽  
Joshua C. Magee ◽  
Elise M. Clerkin
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Avoidance ◽  
Change Score ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Symptom Change ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Task Training ◽  
Clinical Questions ◽  
Pilot Intervention ◽  
Future Work

AbstractWidely-used, empirically-supported treatments focus on reducing experiential avoidance (EA) as a mechanism of social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptom change. However, little is known about how EA and SAD symptoms bidirectionally interrelate from session to session, or throughout the course of an intervention—a gap that raises significant theoretical and clinical questions about the mechanistic role of EA. Participants (N = 78) with elevated EA and SAD symptoms completed a 3-session pilot intervention (Approach-Avoidance Task training plus psychoeducation) designed to target EA. Bivariate latent change score modeling was then used to map the bidirectional, temporal interrelationships between EA and SAD symptoms from session to session. Analyses accounted for the overall trajectory of change in both variables (i.e., EA and SAD) and both variables’ preceding measurement. Findings suggested that changes in SAD symptoms preceded and predicted changes in EA from session to session. Contrary to hypotheses, this effect was not bidirectional, as changes in EA did not precede and predict changes in SAD symptoms from session to session. The use of a relatively small analogue sample limit the external validity of the present findings. Nevertheless, these novel findings advance our understanding of the dynamic interrelationships between EA and SAD symptoms throughout treatment. Moreover, given that many leading treatments target EA, this study highlights a need for future work to continue evaluating whether EA is indeed a mechanism of SAD symptom change.

Implications of Parental Suicide and Violent Death for Promotion of Resilience of Parentally-Bereaved Children

Death Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana C. Brown ◽  
Irwin N. Sandler ◽  
Jenn-Yun Tein ◽  
Xianchen Liu ◽  
Rachel A. Haine
Keyword(s):  
Violent Death ◽  
Parental Suicide ◽  
Parentally Bereaved ◽  
Bereaved Children ◽  
Parentally Bereaved Children
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