Investigating the Relationship Between Marital Status and Ethnicity on Neurocognitive Functioning in a Rural Older Population: A Project FRONTIER Study.

OBJECTIVES: Research indicates being married is related to better physical and psychological health. Little is known regarding the relationship between marital status and neurocognitive functioning and whether it differs based on ethnicity (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic). This is the first study to examine this relationship in a sample of aging adults in rural Texas. METHODS: Data from 1,864 participants (Mage = 59.68, standard deviation [SD]age = 12.21), who were mostly Hispanic (n = 1,053), women (n = 1,295), and married (n = 1,125) from Project Facing Rural Obstacles to Healthcare Now Through Intervention, Education, & Research were analyzed. Neuropsychological testing comprised Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, Trails Making Test, and Clock Drawing. Participants were dichotomized, married, and unmarried. RESULTS: There was a significant interaction between Hispanic identity and marital status on overall neurocognitive functioning (F(1, 1,480) = 4.79, p < .05, ηp2 = 0.003). For non-Hispanic individuals, married individuals had higher overall neurocognitive functioning compared to unmarried individuals, whereas neurocognitive functioning for Hispanic individuals did not significantly differ between married and unmarried individuals. There were significant main effects as married individuals (M = 84.95, SD = 15.56) had greater overall neurocognitive functioning than unmarried individuals (M = 83.47, SD = 15.86; F(1, 1,480) = 14.67, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.01), Hispanic individuals (M = 78.02, SD = 14.25) had lower overall neurocognitive functioning than non-Hispanic individuals (M = 91.43, SD = 15.07; F(1, 1,480) = 284.99, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.16). DISCUSSION: Hispanics living in rural areas experience additional stressors that could lead to worse neurocognitive functioning, which is supported by the Lifespan Biopsychosocial Model of Cumulative Vulnerability and Minority Health, which postulates that race/ethnicity/socioeconomic-status-related stressors exacerbate the impact of other life stressors. Reduction of stress on rural Hispanics should be a priority as it could positively affect their neurocognitive functioning.

Pandemic grief risk factors and prolonged grief disorder in bereaved young adults during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated whether COVID-19-specific risk factors (e.g., feeling guilty for not being present with the deceased at the time of the loss and feeling emotionally distant from the deceased prior to the loss) were associated with prolonged grief disorder (PGD) symptomatology or diagnosis among young adults bereaved due to any cause (e.g., illness and violent loss). METHODS: We surveyed 196 young adults who had a family member/close friend die during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed the PGD-12 Questionnaire and the 10-item Pandemic Grief Risk Factors (PGRF) Questionnaire. RESULTS: More time spent with the deceased before the loss and greater endorsement of pandemic grief risk factors were associated with increased PGD symptoms and a greater likelihood of meeting the diagnostic criteria for PGD. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The COVID-19 pandemic created unique risk factors that affected the grieving process for bereaved individuals, regardless of whether the death was related to COVID-19 infection. These findings add to a growing body of literature examining grief and loss within the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that there may be detrimental long-term psychological outcomes for these bereaved individuals, regardless of the cause of death. Routine screening for these unique risk factors in medical and psychological clinics is warranted to help identify those individuals who could benefit from early intervention. Also, it will be important to understand and possibly modify evidence-based interventions and prevention programs to directly address the identified unique PGRF.

Perceptions of grief reactions in family members of incarcerated individuals: A vignette-based experiment.

We examined perceptions of individuals grieving the loss of a family member to incarceration. Participants (N = 1095) were randomized to a vignette that varied by race-ethnicity, crime type, and grief trajectory to assess their perceptions. Results indicated: (1) participants perceived prolonged grief as less appropriate than resilience; (2) Black family members grieving someone who committed a violent crime as more appropriate compared to White family members; and (3) women endorsed both grief trajectories as more appropriate and indicated greater comfort supporting the family member. Lastly, participants indicated prolonged, White and Latinx grievers should seek therapy more than resilient or Black individuals.

An examination and proposed definitions of family members' grief prior to the death of individuals with a life-limiting illness: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Research has extensively examined family members' grief prior to the death of an individual with a life-limiting illness but several inconsistencies in its conceptualization of related constructs, yet significant conceptualization issues exist. AIM: This study aimed to identify and characterize studies published on family members grief before the death of an individual with a life-limiting illness, and propose definitions based on past studies in order to initiate conceptual clarity. DESIGN: A mixed-method systematic review utilized six databases and was last conducted July 10, 2021. The search strategy was developed using Medical Subject Headings. This study was prospectively registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020166254). RESULTS: One hundred thirty-four full-text articles met inclusion criteria. This review revealed across studies a wide variation in terminology, conceptualization, and characterization of grief before the death. More than 18 terms and 30 definitions have been used. In many cases, the same term (e.g. anticipatory grief) was defined differently across studies. CONCLUSIONS: We found grief occurring before the death of a person with a life-limiting illness, which we termed pre-death grief, is comprised of two distinct constructs: anticipatory grief and illness-related grief. Anticipatory grief is future-oriented and is characterized by separation distress and worry about a future without the person with the life-limiting illness being physically present. Illness-related grief is present-oriented and is characterized by grief over current and ongoing losses experienced during the illness trajectory. These definitions provide the field with uniform constructs to advance the study of grief before the death of an individual with a life-limiting illness.

An evaluation of common risk factors for prolonged grief disorder using the international classification of diseases-11 criteria.

OBJECTIVES: Inclusion of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) in the ICD-11 warrants examination of risk factors using diagnostic criteria as there is a paucity of research that has examined risk factors of PGD using the diagnostic criteria. This study examines if the identified risk factors for prolonged grief predict PGD using the diagnostic criteria across three samples. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was used to assess risk factors and PG-13 in three distinct samples of bereaved adults. The PG-13 was either parsed dichotomously using the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria to indicate presence of PGD or summed to index general grief severity.Results: When using ICD-11 diagnostic criteria, only female gender and high levels of pre-loss contact were identified in separate samples as increasing risk of diagnosis. The most replicable results across samples were found when using the summed PG-13 symptom scores. When using the PG-13 total score, younger age and more pre-loss contact with the deceased were associated with higher symptom levels, which replicated in all three studies.Conclusions: This study provided evidence that the extant literature using summed scores to explore risk factors might not generalize to the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria.

Perception of grief responses: Are maladaptive grief responses and the stages of grief considered normal?

Literature indicates laypeople hold strong opinions about how persons should grieve. This study examined how individuals perceive normal grief. Participants across two distinct samples (Study 1: N = 510 via MTurk; Study 2: N = 210 via Qualtrics panels) completed the Perception of Grief Scale and Grief Expectations Questionnaire. Findings indicated participants endorsed maladaptive grief responses as normal relative to other responses to loss. Endorsement of maladaptive grief responses as normal predicted endorsement of grief work beliefs. If social expectations deem maladaptive grief to be normal, as this study suggests, bereaved individuals might implicitly push themselves to grieve maladaptively.

On the fly: Adapting quickly to emergency remote instruction in a family literacy programme.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary changes in family literacy instruction, forcing face-to-face programmes to shift rapidly (or "on the fly") to online, remote instruction. This study is one of the few on online teaching and learning in family literacy and, to the knowledge of the authors, the first on emergency remote instruction in a family literacy programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines how the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University in the United States has responded to the pandemic by converting its face-to-face family literacy classes into emergency remote instruction using online platforms. Serving eight immigrant families in 2019-2020 who live in the State College area in central Pennsylvania, the Family Pathways programme includes adult education, parent education and interactive parent-child literacy activities. The article discusses how teachers created online learning opportunities for parents and children to learn together, the strategies and resources instructors used to teach remotely, how challenges such as discomfort with technology were addressed, and what has been learned from the experience. Although COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for educators and learners in family literacy programmes more broadly, it has also compelled instructors in this particular programme to use remote instruction creatively and has revealed the critical importance of family literacy programmes as an educational support system for low-income and immigrant families.

À la volée : adaptation rapide à l'urgence du télé-enseignement dans le cadre d'un programme d'alphabétisation familiale ­ La pandémie de COVID 19 a entraîné des changements extraordinaires en matière d'alphabétisation familiale, contraignant les programmes en présentiel à passer rapidement (pour ainsi dire, à la volée) à un mode d'enseignement à distance en ligne. Cette étude est l'une des rares à aborder l'enseignement et l'apprentissage en ligne en matière d'alphabétisation et, à la connaissance des auteures, elle est la première qui porte sur l'enseignement à distance dans le cadre d'un programme d'alphabétisation familiale durant la pandémie de COVID-19. Le présent article se penche sur la réponse que l'Institut Goodling de recherche en alphabétisation familiale de la Pennsylvania State University (USA) a apporté à la pandémie en transformant, à chaud, ses cours d'alphabétisation familiale en présentiel en cours à distance par le biais de plateformes en ligne. Le programme Family Pathways, qui accueillait en 2019­2020 huit familles immigrées habitant près de State College, une circonscription administrative dans le centre de la Pennsylvanie, comporte des volets d'éducation des adultes, d'éducation parentale et d'activités interactives d'alphabétisation parents-enfants. Il examine différents aspects de ce programme : comment des enseignants ont élaboré des offres d'apprentissage en ligne pour permettre aux parents et aux enfants d'apprendre ensemble; les stratégies et ressources utilisées par les enseignants dans leurs cours à distance; comment les défis, comme le fait d'être mal à l'aise avec la technologie, ont été abordés et quels sont les leçons tirées de cette expérience. Bien que la COVID-19 pose plus globalement des défis sans précédent aux éducateurs et aux apprenants des programmes d'alphabétisation familiale, elle a aussi obligé les enseignants de ce programme particulier à faire un usage créatif du télé-enseignement et révélé l'importance décisive des programmes d'alphabétisation familiale pour offrir un système de soutien éducatif à des familles immigrées et disposant de faibles revenus.