Spiritual Needs of Bereaved Parents

描述：孩子的死亡对父母的精神健康提出了重大挑战。我们的长期目标是了解失去亲人的父母的精神需求，失去亲人的父母的精神需求随时间变化的方式，以及以精神为基础的干预措施在丧亲期间影响父母健康的方式和程度。这个R03应用程序的目的是开发一个可靠和有效的量表来评估失去亲人的父母的精神健康，这是我们实现长期目标的下一步。需要一个量表来评估失去亲人的父母的精神健康，因为这样的量表将促进新的精神干预的发展，这将有助于预防经常使悲伤复杂化的精神和身体疾病。我们计划通过追求两个具体目标来实现这个应用程序的目标。目标1将三角定位在我们初步研究中确定的丧亲父母的精神需求主题。焦点小组将与在儿童重症监护病房（PICU）经历孩子死亡的父母和经常照顾丧亲家庭的医院牧师进行讨论。焦点小组讨论将被数字化记录、转录和归纳分析，以识别和描述父母的精神需求。调查结果将与我们之前与失去亲人的父母进行的深入访谈中确定的精神需求进行比较。目标2将开发和验证丧亲父母精神问卷（BPSQ），一个衡量丧亲父母精神健康的量表。BPSQ项目将基于目标1中三角化的精神主题。韦恩州立大学促进临终关怀卓越中心是一个由临终专家组成的跨学科团队，他们将评估BPSQ项目的内容效度。在一项多中心研究中，将对250名孩子死于5个picu之一的父母进行BPSQ和其他相关的、先前有效的问卷调查。心理测量分析包括维度评估和差异项目功能将在BPSQ上进行。构建效度和收敛效度将通过调查BPSQ和其他已验证问卷之间的关系来评估。本研究将有助于进一步了解丧亲父母的精神需求，并为丧亲父母编制一份可靠、有效和临床相关的精神健康量表。这项研究是创新的，因为它涉及了一个未被充分研究的人群（即失去亲人的父母），并关注了一个重要的、未被充分研究的适应损失的方面（即精神方面）。这项研究意义重大，因为它将为随后关于父母丧亲的决定性研究奠定基础。这项研究预计将导致R01应用程序，以支持研究新的精神干预对失去亲人的父母的心理和身体健康的影响。

DESCRIPTION: The death of a child presents major challenges to parents' spiritual wellbeing. Our long-term goal is to understand the spiritual needs of bereaved parents, the ways in which bereaved parents' spiritual needs change over time, and the manner and extent that spiritually based interventions affect parents' health during bereavement. The objective of this R03 application, which is the next step toward attainment of our long-term goal, is to develop a reliable and valid scale to assess the spiritual wellbeing of bereaved parents. A scale is needed to assess bereaved parents' spiritual wellbeing because such a scale would facilitate the development of new spiritually based interventions that would help to prevent the mental and physical ailments that often complicate grief. We plan to accomplish the objective of this application by pursuing two specific aims. Aim 1 will triangulate the themes of bereaved parents' spiritual needs identified in our preliminary studies. Focus groups will be conducted with parents who experienced the death of their child in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and with hospital chaplains who routinely care for bereaved families. Focus group discussions will be digitally recorded, transcribed and inductively analyzed to identify and describe parents' spiritual needs. Findings will be compared to the spiritual needs identified in our prior in-depth interviews with bereaved parents. Aim 2 will develop and validate the Bereaved Parent Spirituality Questionnaire (BPSQ), a scale to measure bereaved parents' spiritual wellbeing. BPSQ items will be based on the spiritual themes triangulated in Aim 1. The Wayne State University Center to Advance Palliative Care Excellence, an interdisciplinary team of end-of-life experts, will assess the content validity of the BPSQ items. In a multicenter study, the BPSQ and other related, previously validated questionnaires will be administered to 250 parents whose child died in one of 5 PICUs. Psychometric analyses including assessment of dimensionality and differential item functioning will be performed on the BPSQ. Construct and convergent validity will be evaluated by investigating relationships between the BPSQ and other validated questionnaires. The research will provide greater understanding of bereaved parents' spiritual needs and produce a reliable, valid and clinically relevant spiritual wellbeing scale specific for bereaved parents. The research is innovative because it addresses an understudied population (i.e., bereaved parents) and focuses on an important and understudied aspect of adjustment to loss (i.e., spirituality). The research is significant because it will lay the foundation for subsequent definitive studies of parental bereavement. The research is expected to lead to an R01 application that will support studies examining the effect of new spiritually based interventions on bereaved parents' mental and physical health.