The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors of Complicated Grief (CG) among children and adolescents who lost a parent to cancer or from an other cause.
Although the intensity of the grief and life disruption usually subsides in the months following the loss of a loved one, approximately 7% of bereaved individuals will continue to experience persistent and intense grief-related symptoms associated with marked distress and functional impairment years after the death. While several studies aimed to evaluate risk factors of CG among adults, little is known regarding CG among children and adolescents. Therefore, prospective research directly examining the impact of bereavement on post-loss psychiatric symptoms, including CG, post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), depression, attentional and behavioral avoidance among children are needed. Improving our understanding of CG risk factors among children will help direct healthcare professionals' clinical attention toward screening and care of this underserved population. Furthermore, identifying mechanisms explaining why cancer bereaved children may be at greater risk for persistent psychological distress and CG will inform the development of preventive, early intervention and treatment strategies. Participants will be recruited to the Child and Adolescent grief counseling of the College Hospital of Toulouse as well as with the Team Regional Resource Pediatric Palliative Care "Enfant-Do". At 3, 6 and 12 months post-loss, children and their parent will be invited to complete questionnaires assessing peritraumatic dissociative experiences, peritraumatic distress, security attachment, symptoms of CG, symptoms of PTSD and attentional avoidance.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
38
Children will complete scales, questionnaires and inventory at 3 months post-loss and only 2 scales at 6 and 12 month post-loss
Psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent
Toulouse, France
Inventory of Complicated Grief
Complicated Grief symptoms at 6 months post-loss among children aged from 6 to 17 years Measured by the Inventory of Complicated Grief
Time frame: 6 months post-loss
Inventory of Complicated Grief for Evaluation of paths of grief symptoms developement
Analysed symptoms and divided subject between 4 groups according to their symptoms. Group 1 : High levels of grief symptoms at 3 months wich will decrease at 12 months Group 2 : Low levels of grief symptoms at 3 months wich will stay low at 12 months Group 3 : High levels of grief symptoms at 3 months wich will stay high at 12 months Group 4 : Low levels of grief symptoms at 3 months wich will increase at 12 months
Time frame: At 3 and 12 months post-loss
Influence of grief symptoms of the parent staying in life
Evaluation of the influence of grief symptoms of the parent staying in life on the level of complicated grief symptoms development (i) One group of children will have high levels of grief symptoms at T0 which will decrease over the time. (ii) One group will have low levels of grief symptoms at T0 which will remain low over the time. (iii) One group will have high levels of grief symptoms at T0 which will remain high over the time. (iiii) One group will have low levels of grief symptoms at T0 which will increase over the time.
Time frame: At 3 months and 12 months post-loss
Evaluation of the impact of the cause of parents death (cancer or other cause) on complicated grief symptoms development.
Questionnaire will be used to measure these symptoms : Inventory of Complicated Grief
Time frame: At 6 and 12 months post-loss
Evaluation of the impact of the cause of parents death (cancer or other cause) on post-traumatic stress developement.
Questionnaires will be used to measure these symptoms : Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire and Peritraumatic Distress Inventory
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Time frame: At 6 and 12 months post-loss
Evaluation of the impact of the cause of parents death (cancer or other cause) on depression developement.
Questionnaire will be used to measure these symptoms : Children Depression Inventory
Time frame: At 6 and 12 months post-loss
Determined if early factors could explain differences of symptoms of complicated grief between the cause of death of the parent (cancer or another cause)
Questionnaire will be used to measure these symptoms : Inventory of Complicated Grief
Time frame: At 3 months post-loss
Determined if early factors could explain differences of symptoms of post-traumatic stress developement between the cause of death of the parent (cancer or another cause)
Questionnaire will be used to measure these symptoms : Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire and Peritraumatic Distress Inventory
Time frame: At 3 months post-loss
Determined if early factors could explain differences of symptoms of depression developement between the cause of death of the parent (cancer or another cause)
Questionnaire will be used to measure these symptoms : Children Depression Inventory
Time frame: At 3 months post-loss