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丧亲父母的精神需求，丧亲父母的精神需求随时间变化的方式，以及基于精神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应用程序的目标，这是实现我们的长期目标的下一步，是开发一个可靠和有效的规模来评估丧亲父母的精神福祉。需要一个量表来评估失去亲人的父母的精神健康，因为这样的量表将有助于开发新的基于精神的干预措施，这将有助于预防往往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本申请的目标。目标1会将我们初步研究所确定的丧亲父母的精神需要的主题进行三角分析。焦点小组将与在儿科重症监护室（PICU）中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。焦点小组讨论将被数字化记录，转录和归纳分析，以确定和描述父母的精神需求。调查结果将与我们之前对丧亲父母的深入采访中确定的精神需求进行比较。目的2将开发和验证丧亲父母灵性问卷（BPSQ），这是一个衡量丧亲父母精神健康的量表。BPSQ项目将基于目标1中三角形的灵性主题。韦恩州立大学推进姑息治疗卓越中心是一个由临终专家组成的跨学科团队，将评估BPSQ项目的内容有效性。在一项多中心研究中，将对250名儿童在5个PICU之一死亡的父母进行BPSQ和其他相关的先前验证的问卷调查。将对BPSQ进行心理测量学分析，包括维度和差异项目功能评估。通过调查BPSQ和其他有效问卷之间的关系来评估结构和收敛效度。这项研究将使人们更好地了解丧亲父母的精神需求，并为丧亲父母制定一个可靠、有效和临床相关的精神健康量表。这项研究是创新的，因为它解决了一个研究不足的人群（即，失去亲人的父母），并集中在一个重要的和未充分研究的方面调整损失（即，灵性）。这项研究意义重大，因为它将为随后对父母丧亲之痛的确定性研究奠定基础。这项研究预计将导致R01应用程序，将支持研究检查新的精神为基础的干预措施对丧亲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.