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Danvers AF, Scott BG, Shiota MN, Tein JY, Wolchik SA, Sandler II. Effects of Therapeutic Intervention on Parentally Bereaved Children's Emotion Reactivity and Regulation 15 Years Later. Prev Sci 2020; 21:1017-1027. [PMID: 32720190 DOI: 10.1007/s11121-020-01142-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The Family Bereavement Program (FBP) is a family-based intervention for parentally bereaved children and surviving caregivers. Results are reported of a randomized controlled trial, examining intervention effects on emotional reactivity and regulation of young adults who participated in the program 15 years earlier. Participants (N = 152) completed four emotion challenge tasks: reactivity to negative images, detached reappraisal while viewing negative images, positive reappraisal while viewing negative images, and reengagement with positive images. Outcomes included cardiac interbeat interval (IBI), pre-ejection period (PEP), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as well as self-reported emotional experience and regulation effectiveness. Direct intervention effects and effects mediated through improved parenting were estimated. Several significant effects were observed in primary analyses; however, none remained significant after correction for familywise Type I error. Parenting mediated FBP effects on IBI during negative reactivity (b = 15.04), and on RSA during positive reengagement (b = 0.35); the latter effect was accounted for by changes in breathing. Intervention condition was a direct predictor of self-reported detached reappraisal effectiveness (b = 1.00). Intervention and gender interacted in predicting self-reported negative emotion during the negative reactivity (b = 1.04) and positive reappraisal tasks (b = 1.31) such that intervention-condition men reported more negative emotions during those tasks. Although these findings should be considered preliminary given the limited power of the corrected statistical tests, they suggest long-term effects of family intervention following the death of a parent on offspring's emotional reactivity and regulation ability that should be pursued further in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brandon G Scott
- Department of Psychology, Montana State University, Culbertson Hall, 100, Bozeman, MT, 59717, USA
| | - Michelle N Shiota
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA.
| | - Jenn-Yun Tein
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA
- REACH Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Sharlene A Wolchik
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA
- REACH Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Irwin I Sandler
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1104, USA
- REACH Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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