Table 2.
Parents’ reports of children’s responses by surviving children’s age, sex, and race and deceased’s unit.
| Characteristic | No. (%) of responsesa
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total reports (N = 64) | Changed behaviors (n = 24) | Not understanding what was going on (n = 15) | Maintaining connection with sibling (n = 9) | Not enough time with sibling, say goodbye (n = 6) | Believing sibling in a good place (n = 6) | Not believing sibling would die (n = 4) | |
| Age | |||||||
| Preschool (2–5 y) (n = 10) | 14 (22) 1.4/child | 0 (0) | 11 (79) | 1 (7) | 0 (0) | 2 (14) | 0 (0) |
| School-age (6–12 y) (n = 19) | 26 (41) 1.4/child | 13 (50) | 4 (15) | 3 (12) | 3 (12) | 3 (12) | 0 (0) |
| Adolescent (13–19 y) (n = 15) | 24 (38) 1.6/child | 11 (46) | 0 (0) | 5 (21) | 3 (12) | 1 (4) | 4 (17) |
| Sex | |||||||
| Male (n = 20) | 28 (44) 1.4/boy | 13 (46) | 3 (11) | 4 (14) | 4 (14) | 3 (11) | 1 (4) |
| Female (n = 24) | 36 (56) 1.5/girl | 11 (31) | 12 (33) | 5 (14) | 2 (6) | 3 (8) | 3 (8) |
|
| |||||||
| Race | |||||||
| Black (n = 24) | 35 (55) 1.5/child | 8 (23) | 11 (31) | 6 (17) | 2 (6) | 6 (17) | 2 (6) |
| White (n = 6) | 8 (12) 1.3/child | 4 (50) | 0 (0) | 2 (25) | 1 (12) | 0 (0) | 1 (12) |
| Hispanic (n = 14) | 21 (33) 1.5/child | 12 (57) | 4 (19) | 1 (5) | 3 (14) | 0 (0) | 1 (5) |
|
| |||||||
| Intensive care unit | |||||||
| Neonatal (n = 20) | 23 (36) 1.2/child | 8 (35) | 10 (43) | 0 (0) | 1 (4) | 4 (17) | 0 (0) |
| Pediatric (n = 24) | 41 (64) 1.7/child | 16 (39) | 5 (12) | 9 (22) | 5 (12) | 2 (5) | 4 (10) |
a
Because of rounding, percentages may not total 100.