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School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent

IMPORTANCE: To better support children with the experience of parental death, it is crucial to understand whether parental death increases the risk of adverse school outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether parental death is associated with poorer school outcomes independent of factors unique to the...

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Autores principales: Liu, Can, Grotta, Alessandra, Hiyoshi, Ayako, Berg, Lisa, Rostila, Mikael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Medical Association 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8994122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35394516
http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3842
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author Liu, Can
Grotta, Alessandra
Hiyoshi, Ayako
Berg, Lisa
Rostila, Mikael
author_facet Liu, Can
Grotta, Alessandra
Hiyoshi, Ayako
Berg, Lisa
Rostila, Mikael
author_sort Liu, Can
collection PubMed
description IMPORTANCE: To better support children with the experience of parental death, it is crucial to understand whether parental death increases the risk of adverse school outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether parental death is associated with poorer school outcomes independent of factors unique to the family, and whether children of certain ages are particularly vulnerable to parental death. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based sibling cohort study used Swedish national register-based longitudinal data with linkage between family members. Register data were collected from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2016. Data analyses were performed on July 14, 2021. The participants were all children born between 1991 and 2000 who lived in Sweden before turning age 17 years (N = 908 064). EXPOSURE: Parental death before finishing compulsory school. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Mean school grades (year-specific z scores) and ineligibility for upper secondary education on finishing compulsory school at age 15 to 16 years. Population-based cohort analyses were conducted to examine the association between parental death and school outcomes using conventional linear and Poisson regression models, after adjustment for demographic and parental socioeconomic and health indicators measured before childbirth. Second, using fixed-effect linear and Poisson regression models, children who experienced parental death before finishing compulsory school were compared with their siblings who experienced the death after. Third, the study explored the age-specific associations between parental death and school outcomes. RESULTS: In the conventional population-based analyses, bereaved children (N = 22 634; 11 553 boys [51.0%]; 11 081 girls [49.0%]; mean [SD] age, 21.0 [2.8] years) had lower mean school grade z scores (adjusted β coefficient, −0.19; 95% CI, −0.21 to −0.18; P < .001) and a higher risk of ineligibility for upper secondary education than the nonbereaved children (adjusted risk ratio, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.32-1.41; P < .001). Within-sibling comparisons using fixed-effects models showed that experiencing parental death before finishing compulsory school was associated with lower mean school grade z scores (−0.06; 95% CI, −0.10 to −0.01; P = .02) but not with ineligibility for upper secondary education (adjusted risk ratio, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.93-1.23; P = .34). Independent of birth order, losing a parent at a younger age was associated with lower grades within a family. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cohort study, childhood parental death was associated with lower school grades after adjustment for familial confounders shared between siblings. Children who lost a parent may benefit from additional educational support that could reduce the risk of adverse socioeconomic trajectories later in life.
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spelling pubmed-89941222022-04-22 School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent Liu, Can Grotta, Alessandra Hiyoshi, Ayako Berg, Lisa Rostila, Mikael JAMA Netw Open Original Investigation IMPORTANCE: To better support children with the experience of parental death, it is crucial to understand whether parental death increases the risk of adverse school outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether parental death is associated with poorer school outcomes independent of factors unique to the family, and whether children of certain ages are particularly vulnerable to parental death. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based sibling cohort study used Swedish national register-based longitudinal data with linkage between family members. Register data were collected from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2016. Data analyses were performed on July 14, 2021. The participants were all children born between 1991 and 2000 who lived in Sweden before turning age 17 years (N = 908 064). EXPOSURE: Parental death before finishing compulsory school. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Mean school grades (year-specific z scores) and ineligibility for upper secondary education on finishing compulsory school at age 15 to 16 years. Population-based cohort analyses were conducted to examine the association between parental death and school outcomes using conventional linear and Poisson regression models, after adjustment for demographic and parental socioeconomic and health indicators measured before childbirth. Second, using fixed-effect linear and Poisson regression models, children who experienced parental death before finishing compulsory school were compared with their siblings who experienced the death after. Third, the study explored the age-specific associations between parental death and school outcomes. RESULTS: In the conventional population-based analyses, bereaved children (N = 22 634; 11 553 boys [51.0%]; 11 081 girls [49.0%]; mean [SD] age, 21.0 [2.8] years) had lower mean school grade z scores (adjusted β coefficient, −0.19; 95% CI, −0.21 to −0.18; P < .001) and a higher risk of ineligibility for upper secondary education than the nonbereaved children (adjusted risk ratio, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.32-1.41; P < .001). Within-sibling comparisons using fixed-effects models showed that experiencing parental death before finishing compulsory school was associated with lower mean school grade z scores (−0.06; 95% CI, −0.10 to −0.01; P = .02) but not with ineligibility for upper secondary education (adjusted risk ratio, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.93-1.23; P = .34). Independent of birth order, losing a parent at a younger age was associated with lower grades within a family. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cohort study, childhood parental death was associated with lower school grades after adjustment for familial confounders shared between siblings. Children who lost a parent may benefit from additional educational support that could reduce the risk of adverse socioeconomic trajectories later in life. American Medical Association 2022-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8994122/ /pubmed/35394516 http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3842 Text en Copyright 2022 Liu C et al. JAMA Network Open. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License.
spellingShingle Original Investigation
Liu, Can
Grotta, Alessandra
Hiyoshi, Ayako
Berg, Lisa
Rostila, Mikael
School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title_full School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title_fullStr School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title_full_unstemmed School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title_short School Outcomes Among Children Following Death of a Parent
title_sort school outcomes among children following death of a parent
topic Original Investigation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8994122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35394516
http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3842
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