Investigating the Transmission of Correlates and Severity of Prolonged Grief Symptoms from Parent to Child

Abstract

Background: Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) describes among others the intense yearning, emotional pain, identity disruption, and reduced capacity for experiencing happiness, following a major loss. Bereaved children constitute a vulnerable population, with high chances of developing social impairment and/or psychopathology in the immediate post-bereavement. Literature suggests that PGD levels in parents predict PGD levels in their adult children, however this is unknown for minor children. Studies also report a tendency for females (vs males) and unnatural causes of death (vs. natural) to result in higher PGD symptoms. Methods: The Traumatic Grief Inventory- Self-Report (TGI-SR+), and the Traumatic Grief Inventory- Child/Adolescent (TGI-K-CA) were used to measure PGD symptoms in parents and their children, respectively. A multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to examine the effect of parental symptoms of PGD on children’s symptoms of PGD and whether child’s gender and cause of death were associated with children’s symptoms of PGD. Results: From the final sample of 55 participants, results indicated that higher parental PGD symptoms significantly predicted higher PGD symptoms in the children. However, children’s gender, and unnatural cause of death were not found to predict higher PGD symptoms among the children. Conclusions: Results demonstrate the transmission of PGD symptoms within the parent-child dyads. Thus, family-oriented treatment interventions might be more beneficial in targeting PGD in children compared to individual-oriented.