MCA: A Three-Generation Study of Family Bereavement and Child Wellbeing

本项目研究父母和祖父母的死亡对儿童的影响。随着新冠肺炎疫情在美国造成父母和祖父母死亡人数史无前例的激增，迫切需要严谨的社会科学来概述这些童年经历的后果。该项目探索了家庭丧亲对儿童各种结果的影响，包括行为问题、心理和身体健康，以及认知和学习结果。该项目的发现阐明了可以帮助儿童及其在世父母(S)或照顾者应对死亡的服务和干预点。此外，这个MCA项目促进了合作和培训机会，帮助女性提升到更高的学术级别。这个职业中期促进(MCA)项目有三个研究目标。首先，该项目考察了父母和祖父母的死亡以及随后的儿童福祉的经历，重点放在多个发展阶段和领域。其次，该项目探讨了与父母或祖父母死亡相关的不利因素是否集中在儿童人口的亚群中。第三，该项目检查与死亡相关的任何不良后果是否可以通过其对在世的父母(S)或照顾者的影响来解释。该项目通过分析未来家庭和儿童福祉研究(FFCWS)实现了这些目标，FFCWS是一项基于人群的队列研究，在1998年至2000年期间从美国20个城市招募了4898名父母大多为未婚父母的新生儿作为样本。从孩子出生到15岁，FFCWS对关注儿童及其父母/照顾者进行了多达五次的重新采访。这项研究指出，父母和祖父母在童年失去亲人和祖父母的受访者比例显著。该项目帮助学者、决策者和公众了解丧失亲人对儿童和家庭的健康、繁荣和福利的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines the consequences of parental and grandparental death for children. With the COVID-19 Pandemic creating an unprecedented surge in parental and grandparental deaths in the United States, there is a pressing need for rigorous social science outlining the consequences of these childhood experiences. The project explores effects of family bereavement on a variety of outcomes for children, including behavioral problems, mental and physical health, and cognitive and academic outcomes. Findings from this project clarify the services and points of intervention that could help children and their surviving parent(s) or caregivers navigate a death. Further, this MCA project facilitates collaboration and training opportunities that help women to advance into higher academic ranks.This Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) project has three research goals. First, the project examines the experiences of parental and grandparental death and subsequent child wellbeing, focusing on multiple developmental stages and domains. Second, the project explores whether disadvantages associated with parental or grandparental death are concentrated among subsets of the child population. Third, the project examines if any adverse outcomes associated with a death are explained by its implications for the surviving parent(s) or caregivers. The project achieves these goals through the analysis of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a population-based cohort study that enrolled a sample of 4,898 newborns of mostly unmarried parents from 20 U.S. cities between 1998 and 2000. The FFCWS has re-interviewed the focal children and their parents/caregivers as many as five times between the child’s birth through age 15. The study features notable percentages of respondents who were parentally and grandparentally bereaved during childhood. The project assists academics, decision-makers, and the public to understand the effects of bereavement on the health, prosperity, and welfare of children and families.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.