The proposed competing renewal is a 15-year follow-up of 244 young adults, in 156 families, who participated in an experimental evaluation of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP), a preventive intervention for parentally-bereaved children. The FBP was provided in childhood and adolescence and the follow-up will occur in young adulthood. Families were randomly assigned to the FBP or a self-study control condition. The FBP program includes a component for parents/caregivers and children and was designed to change multiple mediators that are associated with mental health and adjustment outcomes of bereaved children, including effective parenting and children's effective coping. The post-test and 11-month follow-up indicated program efficacy to improve parenting and children's coping, and to reduce internalizing and externalizing problems for girls. The 6-year follow-up, which included 89.3% of the children who were randomly assigned to conditions, found program benefits to reduce teacher and self-reported internalizing and externalizing problems, reduce rates of diagnosed externalizing disorders, reduce intrusive grief, and improve HPA axis regulation, grade point average and self-esteem. FBP also reduced levels of caregiver depression and improved parenting at six-year follow-up. Several program effects in adolescence were moderated by age of child and level of problems at pre-test. Program effects on adolescents at six year follow-up were mediated by improvements in parenting and parents'depressive symptoms at post-test. This application has five specific aims: 1. Evaluate the 15-year efficacy of the FBP on: (a) mental health problems and disorders (b) physical health and health risk behaviors and (c) developmental competencies (e.g., educational and vocational success). 2. Expand the evaluation of 15-year outcomes to include focused, multi-method evaluation of emotion regulation skills (i.e., attentional control, active coping, cognitive reappraisal, and use of social support), assessed through self-report surveys, daily diaries, and cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses to """"""""real-time"""""""" cognitively and interpersonally stressful tasks. 3. Examine whether the 15-year outcomes of the FBP are moderated by baseline youth factors, including gender, age, and pre-intervention psychosocial risk. 4. Evaluate a longitudinal mediation model hypothesizing that intervention effects in young adulthood are mediated by program-induced effects on positive parenting and youth outcomes at 6-year follow-up. 5. Conduct an economic analysis of FBP's impact over the 15-year follow-up period. The proposed research is consistent with the NIMH strategic plan to assess intervention effects on a broad trajectory of outcomes including mental disorder, adaptive functioning and improvements in neurophysiological response to stress in a high risk sample of bereaved children (NIMH, 2008).

Public Health Relevance

While the death of a parent is a traumatic event that elevates children's risk for multiple mental health problems and disorders, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of interventions with this population. The current application is an evaluation of the long-term effects of the Family Bereavement Program, one of the very few preventive interventions with bereaved children that have shown evidence of effectiveness in a rigorous randomized experimental trial. The follow-up has great public health significance to demonstrate the potential impact of the program as children reach young adulthood, to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention and to better identify who is most likely to benefit from the program.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH049155-15
Application #
8675939
Study Section
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section (PDRP)
Program Officer
Goldstein, Amy B
Project Start
1994-06-01
Project End
2015-03-31
Budget Start
2014-04-01
Budget End
2015-03-31
Support Year
15
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$562,789
Indirect Cost
$181,906
Name
Arizona State University-Tempe Campus
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
943360412
City
Tempe
State
AZ
Country
United States
Zip Code
85287
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Sandler, Irwin; Gunn, Heather; Mazza, Gina et al. (2018) Three perspectives on mental health problems of young adults and their parents at a 15-year follow-up of the family bereavement program. J Consult Clin Psychol 86:845-855
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Brincks, Ahnalee; Montag, Samantha; Howe, George W et al. (2018) Addressing Methodologic Challenges and Minimizing Threats to Validity in Synthesizing Findings from Individual-Level Data Across Longitudinal Randomized Trials. Prev Sci 19:60-73
Sandler, Irwin; Tein, Jenn-Yun; Wolchik, Sharlene et al. (2016) The Effects of the Family Bereavement Program to Reduce Suicide Ideation and/or Attempts of Parentally Bereaved Children Six and Fifteen Years Later. Suicide Life Threat Behav 46 Suppl 1:S32-8
Sandler, Irwin; Tein, Jenn-Yun; Cham, Heining et al. (2016) Long-term effects of the Family Bereavement Program on spousally bereaved parents: Grief, mental health problems, alcohol problems, and coping efficacy. Dev Psychopathol 28:801-18
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Luecken, Linda J; Hagan, Melissa J; Sandler, Irwin N et al. (2014) Longitudinal mediators of a randomized prevention program effect on cortisol for youth from parentally bereaved families. Prev Sci 15:224-232
Ayers, Tim S; Wolchik, Sharlene A; Sandler, Irwin N et al. (2013) The Family Bereavement Program: description of a theory-based prevention program for parentally-bereaved children and adolescents. Omega (Westport) 68:293-314
Tein, Jenn-Yun; Coxe, Stefany; Cham, Heining (2013) Statistical Power to Detect the Correct Number of Classes in Latent Profile Analysis. Struct Equ Modeling 20:640-657

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