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Parent's Death Has Long-Term Effect on Kids' Grades

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The death of a mother or father in childhood was associated with lower grades and school failure in adolescence, but the effect was less pronounced when such things as parental education, substance abuse, and mental health were taken into account, a study reported.

The death of a father before age 15 was associated with lower grades at ages 15 to 16 (OR -0.21, 95% CI minus 0.23–minus 0.20), as was the death of a mother (OR -0.17, 95% CI minus 0.19-minus 0.15), wrote , of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and his co-authors online in Pediatrics.

Action Points

  • Both maternal and paternal deaths during childhood were associated with lower grades and school failure, a study found.
  • Much of the effect was associated with socially adverse childhood exposures.

"Adjustment for SEP [socioeconomic position] and parental psychosocial factors weakened the associations, but the results remained statistically significant," wrote Hjern and his co-authors.

Similarly, unadjusted odds of school failure, defined as having finished school with incomplete grades, were 2.04 (95% CI 1.92 to 2.17) and 1.51 (95% CI 1.35 to 1.69) for paternal and maternal deaths, respectively.

However, when adjusted for SEP and parental psychosocial factors, the ORs were reduced to 1.40 (95% CI 1.31 to 1.49) for paternal death and 1.18 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.32) for maternal death.

Initial results also suggested that the unadjusted impact of a parental death due to an external cause, such as an accident, violence or suicide, was greater (OR -0.27, 90% CI minus 0.28-minus 0.26) than loss due to a natural cause, such as an illness (OR -0.16, 95% CI minus 0.17-minus 0.15).

But this effect "was not seen after adjustment for SEP and psychosocial situations of the family," the authors reported.

The study included 22,420 teenagers who had experienced the death of a mother or father before the age of 15 and who were alive and residing in Sweden during the year of their 16th birthday.

Information on parental death, cause of death, school performance, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, and school performance came from national registries that included the entire Swedish population.

Socioeconomic factors noted in the analysis included parents' education level and whether the child had ever been in societal care. Indicators of psychosocial issues included parental admission to a hospital with a diagnosis indicating alcohol or illicit drug use or mental health problems, and records of parental criminal behavior.

Previous studies have indicated that parental loss during childhood is "adversely associated with mental health problems, health risk behaviors, and mortality," the authors wrote.

Few studies, however, have looked specifically at the impact of parental death on school performance. Poor school performance has been associated with adverse health behaviors and outcomes in adolescence and adulthood, including alcohol and drug abuse and mental health problems.

"School performance may predict educational achievement and occupational position later in life and thus the individual's own adult socioeconomic position (SEP), an important determinant of longevity," the authors wrote.

In this study, the authors said, the findings suggest "that much of the lower school performance in bereaved children is related to family background characteristics, rather than the loss itself."

Special attention, they said, should be given to bereaved children in school to prevent declines in school performance. What's more, they said, interventions from health services should be designed to address not only psychological needs but problems in the family environment as well.

Disclosures

The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.

The authors disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.

Primary Source

Pediatrics

Berg L, et al "Parental death during childhood and subsequent school performance" Pediatrics 2014; 133: 4.