Appendix Tables for "Navigating the Minority Grief Paradox: Racial and Ethnic Differences on Parental Death, Social Ties, and Midlife Psychological Distress in the US"

AbstractThe death of a parent can profoundly influence psychological wellbeing and social health, particularly among racial-ethnic minoritized groups. The current study compared the effects of parent death timing during different life stages across racial-ethnic identities on midlife depressive symptoms and perceived stress (“psychological distress”), while accounting for midlife social support and strain. We also investigated the mediating effects of cumulative social support and strain between life course timing of first parental death and midlife psychological distress using the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) method. We found that Black individuals experienced the highest frequency of parental death beginning earlier in life. Using stepwise linear regression modelling, we found that only White individuals experienced a significant association between parent death in young adulthood and early midlife to psychological distress outcomes, net all covariates. These findings were slightly attenuated for White individuals when adding cumulative and individual sources of social support and strain into regression models. The majority of findings for Black and Hispanic adults were null, potentially exposing an understudied area of the minority mental health paradox. Midlife social support and strain were strongly associated with midlife psychological distress across racial-ethnic identities conditioned on parent death experience. The KHB mediation analysis further revealed that cumulative social support in midlife independently accounted for approximately 16% and 20% of the association between parental death in young adulthood and midlife stress and depressive symptoms, respectively. Therefore, bereavement programs could tailor interventions to address variations in midlife social support and strain across different racial and ethnic groups to mitigate psychological distress.