Albert C. Cain

Predictors of Perceived Negative Impact in Mothers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Mothers of 110 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were interviewed with the Child and Adolescent Impact Assessment when their children were approximately 9 years old. Regression analyses revealed that African American mothers reported lower levels of perceived negative impact of having a child with ASD than did Caucasian mothers. Higher repetitive behavior scores on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, lower adaptive behavior scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, and less perceived social support were also significant predictors of higher perceived negative impact. Identifying predictors of perceived negative impact is an important first step in designing interventions to support families and target parents who may be at risk for experiencing higher levels of stress.

Meeting the Needs of Parentally Bereaved Children: A Framework for Child–Centered Parenting

Abstract This article describes the development and deployment of a framework for measuring parenting capacities in the context of bereavement. Grounded theoretical analysis of interviews with a community sample of 41 bereaved spouses with school—aged children elicited a set of nine bereavement—specific parenting tasks. A corollary coding system (covering all nine parenting tasks) was created to transform interview materials into quantitative data, thus permitting systematic empirical investigation of the parenting capacities of bereaved spouses. Parenting behaviors were coded on a 5—point scale ranging from least child—centered to most child—centered. Sex of surviving parent and circumstances of death proved to be significant mediating variables: mothers were more child—centered than fathers, and parents surviving sudden deaths more child—centered than those surviving anticipated deaths. Lengthy illness was associated with less child—centered parenting. The more child—centered the parenting, the less symptomatic the child as measured by parent report (Child Behavior Checklist) and child self—report (Childrens Depression Inventory, Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale). Child—centered parenting was associated with more positive and fewer negative perceptions of the surviving parent by the child as measured by the Parent Perception Inventory. Implications of findings are discussed.

The Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved Children: I. Factors Associated with Short-Term Adjustment

Forty parentally bereaved youngsters (age 6–16; 22 girls, 18 boys) and their surviving parent were interviewed and administered standardized measures (BSI, CBCL, CDI, RCMAS, WISC) to assess their emotional adjustment approximately 18 months after their parents death. The sample was predominantly middle class Caucasian, with children relatively free of prior confounding non-bereavement related major stresses. There were marked discrepancies between parent CBCL reports of their childrens adjustment and the childrens self-report, while teacher reports (TRF) were somewhat more closely correlated with parent reports. On average, these bereaved children appeared to be faring well, though with heightened internalizing problems: adolescent boys seemed to be having the most difficulty. Full sample means concealed important differences revealed in gender and age group analyses. Strikingly, the full sample of children scored below national norms for non-bereaved children on depression and anxiety measures. Parent adjustment was the best predictor of child adjustment.

FACILITATING ATTACHMENT BETWEEN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND A DYING PARENT

A qualitative, community study of 58 parentally bereaved children and their 35 surviving parents illustrates how families take advantage of forewarning of death to foster connections between children and dying parents and prepare for youngsters’ continued attachment to dying parents after the death. Children and parents displayed strong yearnings to remain connected during terminal illness, but fostering connections for attachment after the death was less intuitive and more emotionally fraught as it undermined coping strategies based on denial of impending death. Thus, although some may benefit from interventions aimed at anticipatory relationship facilitation, clinicians should respect limitations on what family members are psychologically able to bear.

The role of peer relationships in parental bereavement during childhood and adolescence.

This article reviews current knowledge concerning the relationship between peer support and adjustment outcomes and experiences for parentally bereaved children. A brief overview of the effects of parental bereavement and factors influencing immediate and long-term adjustment is provided, followed by an overview of peer-provided social support and its relationship to adjustment. Current findings on the predictive value of peer support for adjustment are then discussed, with emphasis on the reciprocal positive and negative influences that peer support and adjustment (or lack thereof) exert. Areas of weakness and neglect within this domain are noted, with a focus on methodological issues, peer-relevant consequences of bereavement in need of further research, and the need for study of particular vulnerable subgroups.

Children of suicide: The telling and the knowing

Abstract Amidst the still limited literature on survivors of suicide, and the particularly scanty literature on children of parental suicide, little focal attention has been given to the special issues surrounding surviving parents telling the children that their deceased parents death was a suicide. Those few papers that deal with this topic have primarily emphasized the destructive consequences of not telling of the suicidal nature of the death, with imperatives to tell the children the whole truth and do so promptly post-death. Based primarily on clinical and preventive work with children of suicide, this absolutism and one-size-fits-all approach is questioned, the difference between being told and knowing accented and illustrated, and the nature and effects of surviving parent explanatory frameworks for the suicide—the ‘why’ of it—explored.

Parent Suicide: Pathways of Effects into the Third Generation

There is a slim, slowly emerging literature addressing the impact of parent suicide upon children. By contrast with some other potentially pathogenic contexts for children (e.g., physical abuse), there has been virtually no exploration of the effect of a parents suicide upon his or her childrens parenting, that is, the transmission into a third generation of the sequelae of the original parent suicide. Based primarily on clinical and preventive work with adult “children of suicide” and their families, this paper begins to map some of the paths, direct and transparent or subterranean and disguised, that such experiences take into further generations. Patterns described include massive indulgence, communication of dire expectations, vicissitudes of family secrets, life–blanching living down the shame, defensive barriers against depressive affects, as well as dread–filled avoidance of producing a third generation.

Widowed Young Parents: Changing Perspectives on Remarriage and Cohabitation Rates and Their Determinants

This study investigated the incidence and determinants of remarriage and cohabitation among a sample of 35 widowed parents of school-aged children. Data from a U. S. longitudinal study of parentally bereaved children, with surviving parents of mean age 41, revealed—by contrast with prior findings and general lore—that virtually half (47. 5%) of the widows and widowers were either remarried or in substantial cohabitation relationships within five years post-death. Contrary to previous findings, there were no differences in remarriage rates between men and women. Other factors expected to influence the likelihood of remarriages, such as number and age of children, did not; income change pre–post death was a determinant for widows, as was widows age within this relatively young sample of widows. There was a trend for surviving parents who exhibited fewer symptoms of psychopathology (on the BSI) at the initial Wave I assessment to more likely be remarried or cohabiting at Wave II than those exhibiting higher levels of psychopathology at the initial assessment. Possible interpretations of the divergence between prior reports or assumptions and these data are noted, as is the importance of studying the role of surviving parent remarriage and/or cohabitation(s) intrinsically, and correspondingly, their effects upon parentally bereaved children.

The Impact of Early Loss History on Parenting of Bereaved Children: A Qualitative Study:

The current report is a qualitative exploration of the ways in which an adults childhood experiences with death subsequently influence their parenting of their own parentally-bereaved children. Findings stem from semi-structured interviews with a community sample of 41 bereaved spouses, interviews that are part of a broader, longitudinal investigation of the determinants of the impact upon children of parent death. While some researchers have examined how childhood loss globally affects parenting, none has looked at the unique experience of the impact of such early experiences on parenting during bereavement. Moreover, in contrast to most studies of childhood loss which operate exclusively from an impairment-focused stance, this study also documents the long-term competency-building that may result from the experience of bereavement during childhood.

The taunting of parentally bereaved children: an exploratory study

This exploratory study addresses the rarely mentioned, minimally investigated topic of peer taunting of parentally bereaved children. It suggests that social support cannot be adequately conceptualized or measured on an essentially one-dimensional scale from high to low support. The data are derived from lengthy semistructured transcribed research interviews of bereaved children. Using conservative criteria, 7 of the 35 children were found to have experienced direct, raw taunting about their loss. The varied forms of taunting experienced are described, as well as a range of victim reactions. Suggestions of foci for future research are presented.