# Latent Profile Analysis in Child Bereavement

> **NIH NIH F31** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $46,233

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Parental death is the most profound childhood experience, with long-term and negative mental health
consequences, including elevated risk for depression and suicide, compared to the general population. Early
adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the resultant consequences of a parental death. This age group is
developing and adjusting to shifts in their cognition, motivation, social behaviors, and environments, each of
which shapes their interactions and relationships. Early stress experiences, such as a parental death, influence
the child’s development by provoking emotional crises. These crises may contribute to the development of
mental health disorders and persist into young adulthood, the peak age for mental illness onset.
To mitigate these effects, bereavement interventions have targeted this population to enhance adaptive coping
and emotional expression. However, empirical studies evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions are
limited in number and methodological rigor, and there is little data regarding their long-term effectiveness.
Moreover, these studies use variable-centered approaches, which assume all grief responses are the same,
rather than person-centered approaches to account for variation in experience and individual characteristics.
This application will address these limitations by leveraging a person-centered analysis (i.e., Latent Profile
Analysis) to examine: individual support-seeking coping and emotional expression characteristics at baseline
(i.e., near time of loss), mental health outcomes across child- and young adulthood based on those individual
characteristics, and if individual differences at baseline predict intervention response. This application aligns
with NICHD and NIMH priorities of enhancing understanding of longitudinal developmental and mental health
outcomes of bereaved children by identifying risk factors, behavioral indicators, and intervention responses.
These aims will be addressed through person-centered analyses that leverage a rich and unique dataset with
five waves of data spanning child- to young adulthood in a sample of 244 parentally-bereaved children. The
specific aims are: (1) to identify subgroups of bereaved children based on patterns of coping and emotional
expression, (2) identify heterogeneity in longitudinal depression and suicide outcomes as a function of child
coping and emotional expression patterns, and (3) examine ways in which intervention effects differ based on
profile membership. Person-centered analyses are necessary for understanding the individual differences that
contribute to heterogeneity in mental health outcomes and intervention response, and considers the dynamic
nature of grief. This research is a timely public health priority, given the stark increase of parental loss due to
COVID-19. The research and training outlined in this NRSA F31 predoctoral fellowship application will equip
me with the skills and support needed to pursue a succes...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10536972
- **Project number:** 1F31HD110247-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rebecca Hoppe
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $46,233
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-25 → 2024-08-24

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10536972

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10536972, Latent Profile Analysis in Child Bereavement (1F31HD110247-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10536972. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*