Faculty Collaboration Database

Factors Underlying the Relationship Between Parent and Child Grief. Omega (Westport) 2019 Nov;80(1):120-136

Date

08/25/2017

Pubmed ID

28836896

DOI

10.1177/0030222817726935

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85071781178 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   11 Citations

Abstract

The death of a parent in a child's life is a significant risk factor for later mental and physical health problems. While much has been written about the surviving parent's functioning and its effects on their bereaved children, little work has been done to look into factors underlying this effect such as how the parent copes. The present study recruited 38 parent-child dyads from a community-based grief support center. Parent and child, independently, completed various measures of emotional functioning, including grief symptoms and coping such as social support and locus of control. The results indicated that parental coping did have an impact on children's grief symptoms. This represents a unique view of adaptation in bereaved children: Parental coping strategies can have an impact on the child, independent of the child's coping strategies. By focusing on parent coping, we have highlighted another possible pathway through which parental functioning affects children's grief.

Author List

Cipriano DJ, Cipriano MR

Author

David J. Cipriano PhD Associate Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adaptation, Psychological
Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child Behavior
Child, Preschool
Counseling
Female
Grief
Humans
Male
Parent-Child Relations
Social Support
Wisconsin