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APA Calls for Strong Mental Health Parity Protections
With the Trump administration signaling in a March 30 court filing that it will not defend the 2024 final rule implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act against litigation brought by the ERISA Industry Committee, APA has issued a statement expressing its disappointment and urging the administration to protect mental health parity. “This decision moves us one step further away from true enforcement of mental health parity rules,” the statement reads, “thereby limiting access to critical mental illness and substance use disorder services that millions of Americans require.”
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Children who lost fathers in the course of active-duty military service were more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder one and two years after their loss, according to a
report in the
Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Why It’s Relevant
Between 2000 and 2022, rates of military service deaths that occurred during active duty ranged from a low of 54.36 per 100,000 in 2000 to a high of 121.43 per 100,000 in 2007, during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deaths were disproportionately male.
Given such losses, bereaved children from military families constitute a distinct population in which to examine the health effects of paternal death on children. Previous studies have been marked by methodological problems.
By the Numbers
- Researchers examined the prevalence of depressive, adjustment, and acute stress/PTSD disorders among 1,212 children both before and after they had lost their father in the course of active-duty military service compared with 1,212 non-bereaved children.
- Those who had lost fathers were three times more likely to have depressive disorders and four times more likely to have adjustment disorders one year after loss compared to non-bereaved children.
- At year one, bereaved children also had more than nine times higher odds of acute stress disorder/PTSD.
- Rates of depressive and adjustment disorders remained higher in the second year but declined for PTSD.
The Other Side
The study was undertaken prior to the addition of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) to the DSM; inclusion of that diagnosis might have changed the results, since depressive, adjustment, and posttraumatic stress disorders are distinct from PGD. Additionally, the researchers utilized data on mental health diagnoses identified by clinicians in health care settings that were not confirmed by independent assessment.
Takeaway Message
The researchers noted that several interventions for parentally bereaved youth and their caregivers, such
the Family Bereavement Program, have been shown to be effective at preventing the development of traumatic grief and mental health problems in children. “Given that primary care clinicians are likely to be the first line of engagement within the healthcare system to address the needs of bereaved children, they should be mindful that parentally bereaved children are at risk for developing mental health disorders that require clinical treatment,” the researchers wrote.
Related Information
Source
Christin Ogle, Ph.D., et al. Mental health diagnoses in bereaved children following loss of active-duty service member fathers in 2001-2006: A case-control study.
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published March 29, 2026. doi:
10.1016/j.jaac.2026.03.024
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/Bilanol)