Psychopathological risk in parentally bereaved adolescents

For a child, the death of a parent is a traumatic experience and can give rise to several difficulties during the child’s development. International literature in this field has focused on clinical populations; evaluations of the psychological difficulties in adulthood have rarely been aimed at non-referred samples. The present study assessed the psychological functioning of a non-referred sample of adolescents, with consideration given to the impact of the loss of a caregiver during childhood on their psychological profiles. It also evaluated the association between the adolescents’ psychological profiles and possible psychopathological risk in the surviving parents. Three groups of subjects (N=96) were considered: adolescents who had suffered the loss before 3 years of age (Group A); adolescents who had experienced loss between 3 and 10 years of age (Group B); and adolescents who had experienced no loss (Group C). Psychological profiles, eating difficulties, and dissociative symptoms were evaluated during adolescence (14-16 years of age). Also assessed were the psychological profiles of the surviving caregivers. Group A had higher scores than Group B and C, indicating that there had not been an improvement in their psychological well-being. In addition, it was found that the psychological profiles of the surviving caregivers may have had an influence on the adolescents’ psychological difficulties. This result is important for prevention, and it could direct clinical work and early intervention in this specific field by taking into account the influence of the surviving parent

Biology of Applied Digital Ecosystems

A primary motivation for our research in Digital Ecosystems is the desire to exploit the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems. Ecosystems are thought to be robust, scalable architectures that can automatically solve complex, dynamic problems. However, the biological processes that contribute to these properties have not been made explicit in Digital Ecosystems research. Here, we discuss how biological properties contribute to the self-organising features of biological ecosystems, including population dynamics, evolution, a complex dynamic environment, and spatial distributions for generating local interactions. The potential for exploiting these properties in artificial systems is then considered. We suggest that several key features of biological ecosystems have not been fully explored in existing digital ecosystems, and discuss how mimicking these features may assist in developing robust, scalable self-organising architectures. An example architecture, the Digital Ecosystem, is considered in detail. The Digital Ecosystem is then measured experimentally through simulations, with measures originating from theoretical ecology, to confirm its likeness to a biological ecosystem. Including the responsiveness to requests for applications from the user base, as a measure of the 'ecological succession' (development).Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure, conferenc

Predictive values of early parental loss and psychopathological risk for physical problems in early adolescents

Background: Several studies have suggested that the early loss of parents is a potentially traumatic experience, exposing adolescents to a higher risk for the onset of psychopathological symptoms. Furthermore, research has shown an association between the loss of a parent in childhood and subsequent physical illnesses, but much less attention has been given to the predictive role of loss in the development of physical illness in adolescence. Methods: From a larger normative sample, we selected 418 early adolescents (and their surviving parents) each of whom had lost a parent in their first 3 years of life. We evaluate the offspring's and parents' psychopathological symptoms, dissociation, and physical problems over a 6-year period. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analyses with time-dependent variables were used to examine the predictive values of the adolescents' and surviving parents' psychopathological symptoms, and youths' demographic characteristics (sex and age) for the occurrence of physical illness during a 6-year period of follow-up. Results: Independently of sex, the psychopathological risk of the surviving parents' and adolescents' affective problems and dissociation has been found to predict the occurrence of physical illnesses. Furthermore, dissociation was the most significant predictor of significant physical problems. Conclusion: These results may be relevant and an addition to the previous literature, opening up new possibilities for prevention and intervention that are oriented toward greater support for children who have experienced the loss of one parent and for surviving parents