Parent and child perceptions of the child's health at 2, 4, 6, and 13 months after sibling intensive care or emergency department death.
Rosa Roche, JoAnne M Youngblut, Dorothy A Brooten
PMID 32453089WHAT IT FOUND
After a sibling dies, children rated their own health worse than parents did at several visits, especially compared with other children their age.
Ask bereaved children directly instead of relying only on parent reports.
Key findings
01Children’s own ratings of their current health were lower than their mothers’ and fathers’ ratings at multiple visits after the sibling’s death.
02When comparing health with before the death, children rated themselves better than their mothers at some visits and worse than their fathers at others.
03Mothers often rated their teen’s current health as better than the teen did at 2, 6, and 13 months after the death.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 71 of 224 eligible families participated, so the results may reflect families willing to be contacted after a death. The sample was mostly Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic, with fewer White non-Hispanic children, so it may not represent all racial or ethnic groups. Only 26 fathers took part, and 40 families had more than one child in the study, so parent-child comparisons may be less stable. Health was measured only by brief self- and parent-rated items, not by physical or emotional examination. Children and parents may have different definitions of health, so a rating difference may not mean the same thing to each person.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that parent reports are enough to detect problems in bereaved children. The children’s own ratings were lower than parent ratings at several visits, and this study did not test any treatment.