PARENTS EVALUATION OF A PREVENTIVE INTERVENTION FOLLOWING THE SUDDEN,VIOLENT DEATHS OF THEIR CHILDREN

A preventive intervention for 156 bereaved parents whose 12- to 28-yea r-old children died by accident, homicide, or suicide was tested using a multisite longitudinal cohort pretest/posttest experimental design. Reported here are bereaved parents' evaluations of the two-dimensiona l support program. Problem-focused support was rated by parents' perce ptions of readiness, relevance, timing, and understanding of the infor mation and skills presented. Emotion-focused support was rated by the identification of I. Yalom's (1985) therapeutic group factors and grou p leader/clinician support. Over 70% of all the person/session respons es showed that both support dimensions were rated at 6 or 7 on a 7-poi nt scale (e.g., 0 = not at all relevant, 7 = very relevant. Additional exploratory analyses examined the extent to which 5 participant and t reatment characteristics influenced parents' evaluations. Clinical imp lications and future research directions are suggested.