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Experiencing the death of a family member at a young age is a confusing time for many children. Some clinicians have reported that parental death is the most stressful life event for children, and some studies have traced adults' mental health difficulties to unresolved childhood grief (Balk, 1983; Krahnstoever, 2006). Despite the hardships endured after a family member's death, some children manage to endure the pain of loss better than others because they are resilient due to a variety of protective factors (Masten, 2003; Bonanno, 2004). The present study examined the relationships between childhood grief, potential protective factors (social support, physical and academic self-concept, parent-child relationship quality) and adolescent outcomes (depression, social satisfaction, and academic achievement). Longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care (SECC) was utilized in the present study. The sample consisted of 1,364 children, including 261 children who experienced the death of at least one family member in third or fifth grade. There were twelve moderation analyses that were used to examine buffering effects in the present study. Findings in the present study did not support the hypotheses that the psychosocial factors examined could be protective factors between experiencing the death of a family member and the adolescent outcomes examined. Results also revealed a significant main effect of social support, parent-child relationship quality, and physical and academic self-concept whereby those with higher levels of these psychosocial factors tend to have lower levels of depression. Having higher physical and academic self-concept was found to be positively associated with academic achievement. Contrary to what might be expected, a main effect of having higher levels of social support, parent-child relationship quality, physical self-concept, and academic self-concept were associated with lower levels of social satisfaction. Although the hypotheses were not supported in the present study, it is still important that the topic was examined and findings from the present study can guide future research in further exploring possible protective factors for children who experienced the death of a family member.

Past research has examined the association between family relationships and child psychopathology utilizing a variety of methods. Most recently, examinations of family variables using paper and pencil measures have become common practice, given their practicality and high potential for clinical utility. However, despite such widespread use of these measures (e.g., PES; Moos & Moos, 1976), there is little evidence to support their appropriateness within a clinical realm. The present investigation therefore sought to examine whether a widely available measure of theoretically important family relationship constructs would perform adequately within a sample of children experiencing clinical difficulties. Questionnaires examining family relationships and affective and behavioral symptomatology, as well as a semi-structured diagnostic interview, were administered to 51 youths, ages six to seventeen, seeking mental health evaluations from the Child and Adolescent Stress and Anxiety Program. Results indicated that the measurement of the family environment by the child report was unreliable. However, the parental report of Cohesion and Conflict demonstrated adequate reliability. Among those scales that were reliable only one significant association was observed, with poorer global family relationships negatively correlated with parental report of child internalizing symptomatology.