(PS6-47) Intergenerational Coping: Examining How Caregiver and Child Coping Relate to Resilience in Bereaved Children

The death of a loved one can have harmful effects on children’s mental health, but some bereaved children exhibit resilience. Various caregiver and child coping strategies, including those associated with active and avoidant coping, may affect the psychosocial functioning of bereaved children. The current study examined the direct impact of caregivers’ coping on bereaved children’s resilience over time. It also examined the indirect effect of caregivers’ coping on bereaved children’s resilience through children’s own coping strategies. Participants included 78 bereaved children aged 8-17 (M_age=12.37, SD=2.59, 51.3% female), seeking services from a grief counseling center in the MidSouth, United States, as well as one of their primary caregivers (M_age=44.45, SD=8.59, 87.2% female). Children predominantly identified as White/European American (n = 40, 51.3%) or Black/African American (n = 32, 41.0%), followed by Biracial/Multiracial (n = 4, 5.1%), Asian (n = 1, 1.3%), and American Indian/Alaskan Native (n = 1, 1.3%). Eight children (10.3%) identified as Latino or Hispanic. The majority of caregivers were the biological parent to the participating child (n = 60, 76.9%) and self-identified as single parents (n = 54, 69.2%). Most caregivers worked full time (n = 51, 65.4%), reporting an average income of $56,800 per year. Most children in the current study were seeking services related to the death of a parent figure (67.9%), followed by a grandparent (16.1%) and sibling (11.3%). Two simple mediation analyses were conducted – the first focused on active coping strategies, and the second focused on avoidant coping strategies. Caregivers’ baseline coping strategies were specified as the independent variable (X), children’s follow-up coping strategies were specified as the mediator (M), and children’s follow-up resilience was specified as the dependent variable (Y). Children’s baseline resilience and therapy attendance were included as covariates. Results from the active coping mediation model (F(4,73)=10.17, p< .001) revealed that children’s active coping was significantly associated with their resilience (b=0.29, SE=0.13; t=2.35; p=.022), and caregivers’ active coping was indirectly associated with children’s resilience through children’s active coping (b=0.10, SE=0.08; 95%CI [.002, .296]). The avoidant coping model was not significant. These findings highlight the importance of promoting active coping strategies among bereaved children and caregivers, in an effort to bolster resilience. This study addresses important gaps in the literature, which has not adequately examined links between coping and resilience among bereaved youth or factors that influence coping among bereaved youth.