Psychological distress in bereavement: A comparative study of parents of adult children who died of cancer versus AIDS

The purpose of this study was to determine differences, if any, on symptoms encompassing nine dimensions of psychological distress during bereavement, as assessed through the Symptom Check List-90-R, between a sample of parents of adults who died of AIDS and a sample of parents of adults who died of cancer, and to draw implications from the findings regarding the need for helping professionals to differentiate their services to such parents as they assist them with grief resolution. Study data were elicited in 1988 from a sample of 58 parents who ranged in ages from 40 to 79 and were selected nationally on a convenience basis through collaboration with hospices, self-help groups and helping professionals. All parents had experienced the death of an adult child between the ages of 18 years to 48 years from either AIDS or cancer within the prior 60 months. Parents' responses to two instruments, the Symptom Check List-90-R and the Personal Data Inventory, obtained through mail contact, were used to test eleven study hypotheses. Nine hypotheses pertained to one psychological dimension. Additionally, one hypothesis addressed the level or depth of overall distress as indicated by the mean Global Severity Index (GSI) and another addressed an interaction between parental age and cause of death in association with global distress. Statistics used were $t$-tests to determine significant differences between the two samples and a two-way analysis of variance to investigate the effects of cause of offspring death and parental age on parental distress during bereavement. Bereaved AIDS parents' mean scores were significantly higher than bereaved cancer parents' scores on the Somatization, Depression, Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive symptom dimensions, and on the GSI. Cause of death by AIDS or cancer and parental age showed no significant interactive effect on bereavement distress. Findings seem to warrant the conclusion that AIDS parents' bereavement distress is similar to cancer parents' distress, but characterized by greater somatization, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsion, and more intense overall distress. This may place them at high risk for development of complicated grief and/or physical illness.