Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T01:34:30.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maternal death and the onward psychosocial circumstances of Australian Aboriginal children and young people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2011

S. R. Zubrick ,
F. Mitrou ,
D. Lawrence  and
S. R. Silburn
S. R. Zubrick*
Affiliation:
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia Centre for Developmental Health, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Perth, Australia
F. Mitrou
Affiliation:
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia
D. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia Centre for Developmental Health, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Perth, Australia
S. R. Silburn
Affiliation:
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia Centre for Developmental Health, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Perth, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor S. R. Zubrick, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, PO Box 855, West Perth, 6872, Australia. (Email: steve@ichr.uwa.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

This study sought to determine the social and emotional impact of maternal loss on Aboriginal children and young people using data from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS).

Method

Data were from a population-based random sample of 5289 Aboriginal children aged under 18 years. Interview data about the children were gathered from primary carers and from their school teachers. Probabilistic record linkage to death registrations was used to ascertain deaths. Association between maternal death and subsequent psychosocial outcomes was assessed using univariate analyses and logistic regression.

Results

Of the 5289 Aboriginal children, 57 had experienced the death of their birth mother prior to the survey. Multi-variable adjustment accounting for age and gender found that, relative to children who were living with their birth mother, children whose birth mother had died were at higher risk for sniffing glue or other substances [odds ratio (OR) 3.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3–8.7], using other drugs (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.2–6.8), talking about suicide (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.2–5.7) and attempting suicide (OR 7.0, 95% CI 1.6–31.1).

Conclusions

Although the death of a birth mother is relatively rare and the vast majority of Aboriginal children with adverse developmental outcomes live in families and are cared for by their birth mother, the findings here suggest that the loss of a birth mother and the circumstances arising from this impart a level of onward developmental risk for mental health morbidity in Australian Aboriginal children.

Keywords

Australian Aboriginal childrenmaternal deathpsychosocial outcomes
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 41 , Issue 9 , September 2011 , pp. 1971 - 1980
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ABS (2004 a). Deaths 2003. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Canberra.Google Scholar
ABS (2004 b). Measures of Australia's Progress 2004. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Canberra.Google Scholar
ABS & AIHW (2003). The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 2003. Australian Bureau of Statistics & Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Canberra.Google Scholar
Brugha, TS, Cragg, D (1990). The List of Threatening Experiences: the reliability and validity of a brief life events questionnaire. Acta Psychiatrica Scandanavica 82, 77–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerel, J, Fristad, MA, Verducci, J, Weller, RA, Weller, EB (2006). Childhood bereavement: psychopathology in the 2 years postparental death. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 45, 681–690.Google Scholar
Cerel, J, Roberts, TA (2005). Suicidal behaviour in the family and adolescent risk behavior. Journal of Adolescent Health 36, 352.e8-352.e14.Google Scholar
Christ, GH, Siegal, K, Christ, AE (2002). Adolescent grief ‘It never really hit me … until it actually happened’. Journal of the American Medical Association 288, 1269–1278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowdney, L (2005). Children bereaved by parent or sibling death. Psychiatry 4, 118–122.Google Scholar
Dowdney, L (2000). Annotation: childhood bereavement following parental death. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 41, 819–830.Google Scholar
Dowdney, L, Wilson, R, Maughan, B, Allerton, M, Schofield, P, Skuse, D (1999). Psychological disturbance and service provision in parentally bereaved children: prospective case-control study. British Medical Journal 319, 354–357.Google Scholar
Fristad, MA, Jedel, R, Weller, RA, Weller, EB (1993). Psychosocial functioning in children after the death of a parent. American Journal of Psychiatry 150, 511–513.Google ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R (1999). The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child psychiatric caseness and consequent burden. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 40, 791–801.Google Scholar
Goodman, R, Ford, T, Simmons, H, Gatward, R, Meltzer, H (2000). Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry 177, 534–539.Google Scholar
Hakulinen, T (1977). On long-term relative survival rates. Journal of Chronic Diseases 30, 431–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, RC, Davis, CG, Kendler, KS (1997). Childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder in the US National Comorbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine 27, 1101–1119.Google Scholar
Koenen, KC, Moffitt, TE, Poulton, R, Martin, J, Caspi, A (2007). Early childhood factors associated with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder: results from a longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine 37, 181–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silburn, SR, Zubrick, SR, De Maio, JA, Shepherd, C, Griffin, JA, Mitrou, FG, Dalby, RB, Hayward, C, Pearson, G (2006). The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: Strengthening the Capacity of Aboriginal Children, Families and Communities. Curtin University of Technology and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research: Perth.Google Scholar
Stanley, F, Zubrick, SR (2008). Child development, human development and the progress of societies. In Statistics, Knowledge and Policy 2007: Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies, pp. 401–410. OECD Publishing: Paris.Google Scholar
Therneau, T, Offord, J (1999). Expected Survival Based on Hazard Rates (Update). Technical Report 63. Mayo Clinic (Section of Biostatistics): Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Wolter, KM (1985). Introduction to Variance Estimation. Springer-Verlag: New York.Google Scholar
Zubrick, SR, Lawrence, DM, De Maio, JA, Biddle, N (2006a). Testing the Reliability of a Measure of Aboriginal Children's Mental Health: An Analysis Based on the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Canberra.Google Scholar
Zubrick, SR, Lawrence, DM, Silburn, SR, Blair, E, Milroy, H, Wilkes, T, Eades, S, D'Antoine, H, Read, A, Ishiguchi, P, Doyle, S (2004). The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: The Health of Aboriginal Children and Young People. Curtin University of Technology and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research: Perth.Google Scholar
Zubrick, SR, Silburn, SR, De Maio, JA, Shepherd, C, Griffin, JA, Dalby, RB, Mitrou, FG, Lawrence, DM, Hayward, C, Pearson, G, Milroy, H, Milroy, J, Cox, A (2006 b). The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: Improving the Educational Experiences of Aboriginal Children and Young People. Curtin University of Technology and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research: Perth.Google Scholar
Zubrick, SR, Silburn, SR, Lawrence, DM, Mitrou, FG, Dalby, RB, Blair, EM, Griffin, J, Milroy, H, De Maio, JA, Cox, A, Li, J (2005). The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: The Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Children and Young People. Curtin University of Technology and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research: Perth.Google Scholar