Health Outcomes of Youth Who Experience Caregiver Death

PROJECT SUMMARY Each year, over two million US youth experience the death of a caregiver before the age of 18 (hereafter referred to as caregiver death). Given the syndemic of COVID-19, the opioid crisis, and gun violence, rates of caregiver death among US children are likely to remain elevated or increase in the next decade. US non-Hispanic Black children are three times more likely to experience parent death than White children. Bereaved youth (i.e., who experienced a caregiver death) are vulnerable to adverse emotional and behavioral health (EBH) outcomes, such as higher risks of depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicidality. The goal of this research is to identify opportunities for improving EBH outcomes among bereaved youth. Three knowledge gaps must be filled to achieve this goal. First, we need to evaluate caregiver death in the context of other co-occurring adverse experiences. Second, we need to understand how the caregiving context mediates the relationship between caregiver death and EBH outcomes. Third, we need to learn from the lived experiences of bereaved young people. In addition to our multidisciplinary investigative team with relevant content and methodological expertise, an Advisory Board of bereaved young adults and grief professionals will be developed to inform this research. Guided by a Life Course Framework and Multidimensional Grief Theory, we will use a convergent mixed-method design to achieve three aims and fill the identified knowledge gaps: 1) Assess associations between caregiver death and EBH outcomes in the context of adverse childhood expereinces among young adults from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = ~2900); 2) Determine the extent to which the caregiving context (i.e., material hardship and parental monitoring) mediates the relationship between caregiver death and EBH outcomes; 3) Identify diverse strategies to support bereaved youth using longitudinal survey data and lived experiences (i.e., life history interviews with 80 young adults and consensus building with our Advisory Board). Achieving these aims will improve our ability develop tailored, family-centered interventions, practices and policies that support bereaved youth across sociodemographic groups. Ultimately, study findings will inform theory-driven and data-informed recommendations for future research, practice, and policies to improve EBH outcomes for the growing number of bereaved young people.