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EFFECTS OF PARENTAL DEATH ON CHILDREN.   Term Paper ID:24436 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Short- & long-term emotional, behavioral, cognitive & physical effects, focusing on depression.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 13 sources, 14 Citations, APA Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Short- & long-term emotional, behavioral, cognitive & physical effects, focusing on depression. Paper Introduction: Introduction Parental death can have serious effects on children; indeed, in comparison with other forms of family dissolution and disruption, parental death has consistently been found to be the strongest stressor on children (Sandler, Reynolds, Kliewer & Ramirez, 1992). Many of these effects can linger well into adulthood. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the effects of parental death on children. The review looks at both short-term and long-term effects; it concludes with treatment considerations. Short-Term Effects In the first-year period following the death of parent, children can experience diverse emotional and behavioral effects. One of these was examined by Sanchez, Fristad, Weller and Weller Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Murphy (1987), for example, foundthat in a sample of young adults (N=184) who, as children, experiencedparental death, many experienced a sort of existential loneliness inadulthood. Subjects with a childhood parental death did, however, havesignificantly greater family pathology and impaired social and heterosexualfunctioning. Oakley, B., Joyce, P.R., Wells, J.E., Bushness, J.A. (1988). Murphy, P.A. (1994). The long-term effects of early parent death:A review. In an effort to get a better understanding of these effects, Sood,Weller, Weller and Fristad (1992) evaluated somatic complains in samples ofbereaved children (aged 5-12 years) and depressed and normal childrenmatched for age and sex. (1991). The relationship ofearly parent death with later alcoholism, other forms of depression, andmilder effects within the general population was also suggested. Associations were found between maternaldeath and agoraphobia with panic attacks as well as between parentalseparation/divorce and agoraphobia with panic attacks and panic disorder. While nobereaved children met DSM criteria for any anxiety disorder, anxietyregarding other family members dying was reported in 55 percent of bereavedchildren immediately after death and in 63 percent approximately eightweeks later. It was concluded that while results refuted the view thatchildhood parental death is singularly causal of adult psychopathology,they did support its role in a multi-determining matrix of contributingfactors. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 64(4),594-6 3. Age and sex of child, sex ofsurviving parent, anticipation of death, and family history of anxiety ordepressive disorders were not significantly associated with increasedanxiety. Harris (1991) followed 11 healthy adolescents (aged 13-18 years)through the year following parental death. (1992). Girls were twice as likely to expressdepressive symptoms as boys. Harris, E.S. Twenty-one percent the 378fifteen-year-olds studied reported high levels of depressive symptoms onthe Children's Depression Inventory. It is suggested that the need to maintain an emotional attachment tointernal representations of the deceased parent is an important componentof the bereavement process. (1989).The effects of childhood parental death and divorce on six-month history ofanxiety disorders. Teacher reports and parentinterviews and reports provided additional information. The review looksat both short-term and long-term effects; it concludes with treatmentconsiderations. American Journalof Community Psychology, 19(4), 481-5 . Finally, in a study of childhood disruptions in parental care beforethe age of 15 years in women aged 18 to 44 years now experiencing majordepression disorder, Oakley, Joyce, Weels, Bushness and Hornblow (1995)found that in this population 17 percent had experienced some type ofparental loss (parental death 4 percent, separations/divorce and 1 percent and other types of loss. Sanchez, L., Fristad, M., Weller, R.A. & Kallgren, C.A. Interestingly, however, it was not found toplace children at risk for the development of conduct disorder. Sandler, I.N., Reynolds, K.D., Kliewer, W. & Blazer, D.G. Ragan and McGlashan (1987) examined whether childhood parental deathis a general risk factor for the subsequent development of severe mentalillness using a sample of 72 psychiatric inpatients who had experienced thedeath of a parent when they were children; inpatients were compared with46 psychiatric patients who had not experienced parental death. (1991). Comprehensive Mental Health Care, 2(1), 17-25. Findings showed that, in general, all samplesreported very few somatic complaints. It is also stated that parents must recognize that youngsterscontinue to struggle with death-related stress well beyond the time of theloss. When death or divorce occur: Helping childrencope with loss. Parental death in childhood and loneliness inyoung adults. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 823-828.----------------------- 9 Child Psychiatry and Human Development,21(4), 267-281. & Kalter, N. Many of these effects canlinger well into adulthood. However,Finkelstein also found that a number of factors can mitigate the long-termeffects of the loss including coping skills and family support. References Finkelstein, H. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21(3), 24 -248. Findings regarding childhood risk factors for high levels ofdepressive symptomatology included serious preschool illness, anxietyexpressed at age nine, and death of a parent for girls but not boys.Mediators of high depressive symptoms at adolescence consisted of familycohesiveness and satisfactory social supports as well as adolescents'positive self-perceptions of popularity, attractiveness, and intellectualcompetence. Stress related symptoms were prominentand sustained. & McGlashan, T.H. Lohnes, K.L. In a study designedto determine the population effect of parental death, Gersten, Beals andKallgren (1991) concluded that the death of a parent is a risk factor formajor depression in children. Marta, S.Y. (1987). Finkelstein (1988) conducted a comprehensive review of the literatureon the long-term effects of parental death, reporting that the researchindicates some evidence for an association between early death of themother and severe forms of depression in adulthood. Childhood parental death andadult psychopathology. Harris' (1991) study brings up the important point that parentaldeath can also affect children's performance and behavior at school. Australian and New Zealand Journal ofPsychiatry, 29(3), 437-448. Epidemiology andpreventive interventions: Parental death in childhood as a case example.Special Issue: Preventive Intervention Research Centers. Another effect of parental death is depression. & Holmes, W.M. It was further noted that overall, subjects reported ahigher sustained degree of distress than adult children following the lossof a parent. Ragan, P.V. Sood, B., Weller, E.B., Weller, R.A. However, when bereaved children didevidence somatic complaints, these were most often found to be headachesand gastrointestinal tract disturbances. Semi-structured interviews wereused in combination with standardized measures collected at 6 weeks, 7months, and 13 months following parental death. Adolescent bereavement following the death of aparent: An exploratory study. Reinherz, Stewart-Berghauer, Pakiz, Frost, Moeykens and Holmes (1989)conducted a 1 -year longitudinal study of early risk for adolescentdepression in a lower-middle-class community. & Weller, E.B. Tweed, J.L., Schoenbach, V.J., George, L.K. Inthis regard, studies of parental death and school behavior/performance haveshown that outward signs of grief at school can include daydreaming,outbursts, declining grades, absenteeism, and incomplete work (Marta,1996). For example, Lohnes and Kalter (1994) state that thetherapeutic objectives in working with these children should includenormalizing children's reactions to and experiences of the death,clarifying confusing and frightening death-related issues, helping childrendevelop coping strategies for particularly troubling feelings and familyand peer dynamics, and sharing with surviving parents the children'sconcerns about parental death and its aftermath. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry,6(1), 39-43. (1989). & Hornblow, A.R.(1995). Those subjects with relatively low levels of self-esteem weremost at risk for this experience of loneliness. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. What these findings show is that fear can actually intensifyover the first few weeks following the death. Results failed to support any hypotheses about early parental deathas a nonspecific risk factor in the subsequent development of severe mentalillness. In most cases, it was found thatparents were also somatizing. (1996). & Fristad, M.A. Conclusions The persistence into adulthood of the untreated effects of childhoodparental bereavement highlights the importance of getting children propertreatment for their grief. Parental loss was significantly associated with lifetime depression,but this effect was no longer significant when adjusted for other factors.However, prolonged separation from both parents was associated with anincreased risk of current and lifetime depressive episodes of approximatelythree to fourfold, even when the risk was adjusted for other factors.Conclusions: The results of this study were said to suggest that prolongedseparation from both parents has a stronger association with current orlifetime depression in women than does parental death, separation/divorceand other types of loss. Gersten, J.C., Beals, J. Several authors have discussed therapeuticfactors that can assist bereaved children in overcoming the negativeeffects of the death. Bereaved children and parents were administered the Grief Interviewand all were administered standard diagnostic interviews. Findings indicated that initial responses to the death werecharacterized by intense emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioralreactions associated with impaired school performance, strained peerrelations, and sleep disturbances. One of these wasexamined by Sanchez, Fristad, Weller and Weller (1994) who assessed anxietysymptoms present immediately following parental death and approximatelyeight weeks later using a sample of 38 prepubertal children. Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and ChildDevelopment, 138, 13 -139. (1994). (1987). In another examination of the short-term effects of parental death onanxiety, Tweed, Schoenbach, George, and Blazer (1989) used DukeEpidemiologic Catchment Area data to examine the relationships between: (a)early childhood maternal death, paternal death, and parentalseparation/divorce, and (b) six-month following diagnoses of severalanxiety disorders including agoraphobia with and without panic attacks,simple phobia, social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder,and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Short-Term Effects In the first-year period following the death of parent, children canexperience diverse emotional and behavioral effects. The relationship of early risk andcurrent mediators to depressive symptomatology in adolescence. However, it was observedthat those bereaved children who had the most anxiety symptoms were alsolikely to have a depressive disorder. Paper presented at the Annual Convention and Exposition ofthe National Catholic Educational Association (93rd, Philadelphia, PA,April 9-12). Measuresincluded diagnostic, demographic-predictor, and outcome variables. ED 4 2 23. Reinherz, H.Z., Stewart-Berghauer, G., Pakiz, B., Frost, A.K.,Moeykens, B.A. Comparisongroups included 38 hospitalized depressed children and 19 normal children. Long-Term Effects Often, if the short-term effects of parental death go untreated,there can be long-term consequences. Journal ofthe American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28(6), 942-947. Somaticcomplaints in grieving children. The purpose of this paper is to review theliterature on the effects of parental death on children. Preventive intervention groups forparentally bereaved children. Anxietyin acutely bereaved prepubertal children. Disruptions in childhood parental care as risk factors for majordepression in adult women. Some children can develop somatic complaints following parentaldeath. & Ramirez, R. Journal of Death and Dying, 17(3), 219-228. Moreover, for those whostill were experience mourning behaviors, the experience of loneliness wassignificantly intensified. (1992).Specificity of the relation between life events and psychologicalsymptomatology. Introduction Parental death can have serious effects on children; indeed, incomparison with other forms of family dissolution and disruption, parentaldeath has consistently been found to be the strongest stressor on children(Sandler, Reynolds, Kliewer & Ramirez, 1992). Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(1), 3-9. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.