Family Bereavement: Societal Prevalence, Patterning, and Consequences

这个项目调查家庭丧亲之痛-经历家庭成员死亡的现象。广泛的研究已经确定了经济和社会困难如何导致个人的死亡风险;但我们对家庭成员的死亡是否会给丧亲之痛带来困难知之甚少。考虑到COVID-19大流行病，科学地了解家庭丧亲之痛是非常重要的-这是一个历史性的全球死亡事件，使数百万人对亲属的突然死亡感到悲痛。这项研究提供了一个家庭丧亲之痛及其社会经济和健康后果的生命历程概述。过去的研究集中在单一类型的家庭损失，如父母死亡，这项研究考虑了多个亲属。这有助于澄清不同类型丧亲之痛的社会负担及其对个人的独特后果。 调查结果可以告知方案的努力，以解决丧亲之痛对人口健康，繁荣和福利的影响。 除了产生与公共卫生高度相关的发现外，这项研究还通过指导和培训历史上代表性不足的群体的学生来支持科学的多样性。该项目的第一个目标是通过分析对1 500名年轻人的大量调查数据，确定家庭丧亲的后果。这些数据包括详细的家族史信息，包括亲属是否还活着，如果没有，他们多久前去世，他们在死亡时的年龄，以及他们是否患有长期疾病。这些数据被用来分析家庭丧亲的经历是否会影响年轻人的幸福感，包括他们的身心健康和教育成功。这项研究的第二个目标是利用对370多万青年和180多万成年人的跨国调查数据，全面概述50多个地点的丧亲之痛的社会和生活过程模式。通过确定在社区，地区和更高层次的家庭丧亲之痛的社会负担，并阐明家庭和队列之间的丧亲之痛的生命历程模式的差异多个出生队列，该研究提供了家庭丧亲之痛的基础知识。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This project investigates family bereavement—the phenomenon of experiencing the death of a family member. Extensive research has identified how economic and social hardship can contribute to an individual’s risk of death; yet we know less about whether the death of a family member can induce hardships for those bereaved. Scientific efforts to understand family bereavement are highly relevant given the COVID-19 pandemic—a global mortality event of historic proportions that has left millions of individuals grieving the abrupt death of relatives. This study offers a life course overview of family bereavement and its socioeconomic and health consequences. Whereas past studies have focused on singular types of family loss, like parental death, this study considers multiple relatives. This allows clarification of the societal burden of different types of bereavement and their unique consequences for individuals. Findings can inform programmatic efforts to address the effects of bereavement on population health, prosperity, and welfare. In addition to generating findings of high relevance to public health, this research supports diversity in science through the mentoring and training of students from historically under-represented groups. The first goal of the project is to identify the consequences of family bereavement by analyzing rich survey data on a cohort of 1,500 young adults. The data feature detailed family history information, including whether relatives are still alive and if not, how long ago they died, how old they were at the time of death, and whether they suffered from prolonged illness. These data are used to analyze whether experiences of family bereavement influence young adults’ wellbeing, including their mental and physical health and educational success. The second goal of the study is to use cross-national survey data on more than 3.7 million youth and 1.8 million adults to offer a comprehensive overview of the societal and life course patterns of family bereavement in more than 50 locations. By identifying the societal burden of family bereavement at the community, regional, and higher levels, and elucidating between-family and cohort differences in life course patterns of bereavement for multiple birth cohorts, the study offers foundational knowledge on family bereavement.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.