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This article outlines the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy's findings from a William Penn Foundation--funded multiyear evaluation of four family literacy programs in Philadelphia. Drawing from qualitative research findings from 2019 to 2021, the article details the creative ways in which these programs implemented remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue providing family literacy services to families in Philadelphia. It describes changes in communication between instructors and families and highlights the increased focus on technology, digital literacy, and mental health concerns that occurred during this unprecedented time. The difficulties that programs, instructors, and families faced and the innovative ways they were handled by family literacy programs are also described. Finally, the article draws on these findings to discuss lessons learned from this sudden shift to remote instruction and describes the inventive practices that can be implemented in other adult and family literacy programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary changes in family literacy instruction, forcing face-to-face programmes to shift rapidly (or "on the fly") to online, remote instruction. This study is one of the few on online teaching and learning in family literacy and, to the knowledge of the authors, the first on emergency remote instruction in a family literacy programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines how the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University in the United States has responded to the pandemic by converting its face-to-face family literacy classes into emergency remote instruction using online platforms. Serving eight immigrant families in 2019-2020 who live in the State College area in central Pennsylvania, the "Family Pathways" programme includes adult education, parent education and interactive parent-child literacy activities. The article discusses how teachers created online learning opportunities for parents and children to learn together, the strategies and resources instructors used to teach remotely, how challenges such as discomfort with technology were addressed, and what has been learned from the experience. Although COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for educators and learners in family literacy programmes more broadly, it has also compelled instructors in this particular programme to use remote instruction creatively and has revealed the critical importance of family literacy programmes as an educational support system for low-income and immigrant families.

Objectives Research indicates being married is related to better physical and psychological health. Little is known regarding the relationship between marital status and neurocognitive functioning and whether it differs based on ethnicity (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic). This is the first study to examine this relationship in a sample of aging adults in rural Texas. Methods Data from 1,864 participants (M age = 59.68, standard deviation [ SD ]age = 12.21), who were mostly Hispanic (n  = 1,053), women (n  = 1,295), and married (n  = 1,125) from Project Facing Rural Obstacles to Healthcare Now Through Intervention, Education, & Research were analyzed. Neuropsychological testing comprised Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, Trails Making Test, and Clock Drawing. Participants were dichotomized, married, and unmarried. Results There was a significant interaction between Hispanic identity and marital status on overall neurocognitive functioning (F (1, 1,480) = 4.79, p < . 05, ηp2 = 0.003). For non-Hispanic individuals, married individuals had higher overall neurocognitive functioning compared to unmarried individuals, whereas neurocognitive functioning for Hispanic individuals did not significantly differ between married and unmarried individuals. There were significant main effects as married individuals (M  = 84.95, SD  = 15.56) had greater overall neurocognitive functioning than unmarried individuals (M  = 83.47, SD  = 15.86; F (1, 1,480) = 14.67, p  <  .001, ηp2 = 0.01), Hispanic individuals (M  = 78.02, SD  = 14.25) had lower overall neurocognitive functioning than non-Hispanic individuals (M  = 91.43, SD  = 15.07; F (1, 1,480) = 284.99, p  < .001, ηp2 = 0.16). Discussion Hispanics living in rural areas experience additional stressors that could lead to worse neurocognitive functioning, which is supported by the Lifespan Biopsychosocial Model of Cumulative Vulnerability and Minority Health, which postulates that race/ethnicity/socioeconomic-status-related stressors exacerbate the impact of other life stressors. Reduction of stress on rural Hispanics should be a priority as it could positively affect their neurocognitive functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined perceptions of individuals grieving the loss of a family member to incarceration. Participants (N = 1095) were randomized to a vignette that varied by race-ethnicity, crime type, and grief trajectory to assess their perceptions. Results indicated: (1) participants perceived prolonged grief as less appropriate than resilience; (2) Black family members grieving someone who committed a violent crime as more appropriate compared to White family members; and (3) women endorsed both grief trajectories as more appropriate and indicated greater comfort supporting the family member. Lastly, participants indicated prolonged, White and Latinx grievers should seek therapy more than resilient or Black individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study evaluated whether COVID-19-specific risk factors (e.g., feeling guilty for not being present with the deceased at the time of the loss and feeling emotionally distant from the deceased prior to the loss) were associated with prolonged grief disorder (PGD) symptomatology or diagnosis among young adults bereaved due to any cause (e.g., illness and violent loss). Methods: We surveyed 196 young adults who had a family member/close friend die during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed the PGD-12 Questionnaire and the 10-item Pandemic Grief Risk Factors (PGRF) Questionnaire. Results: More time spent with the deceased before the loss and greater endorsement of pandemic grief risk factors were associated with increased PGD symptoms and a greater likelihood of meeting the diagnostic criteria for PGD. Significance of results: The COVID-19 pandemic created unique risk factors that affected the grieving process for bereaved individuals, regardless of whether the death was related to COVID-19 infection. These findings add to a growing body of literature examining grief and loss within the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that there may be detrimental long-term psychological outcomes for these bereaved individuals, regardless of the cause of death. Routine screening for these unique risk factors in medical and psychological clinics is warranted to help identify those individuals who could benefit from early intervention. Also, it will be important to understand and possibly modify evidence-based interventions and prevention programs to directly address the identified unique PGRF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family members of incarcerated persons may experience grief related to the incarceration. We examined laypeople’s perceptions of family members grieving the loss of an individual to incarceration. Participants (N = 1095) were randomized to read vignettes that varied by grief trajectory (prolonged vs. resilient), race (Black vs. White vs. Latine), and crime type (violent vs. non-violent). Participants answered questions assessing grief response appropriateness, comfort providing support to the grieving person, beliefs that the grieving person should seek therapy, and how severe they believed the incarcerated person’s crime was. Results indicated that prolonged grief trajectories and greater perceived crime severity were associated with decreased ratings of grief response appropriateness. Participants were more likely to endorse the need for therapy-seeking for individuals with prolonged grief (vs. resilience). Participants were less likely to recommend therapy for Black (vs. White) individuals, and women were more likely to recommend seeking therapy than men. The results suggest stigma might exist toward family members grieving the loss of individuals who committed crimes perceived to be more severe by laypeople, which could contribute to negative bereavement outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Inclusion of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) in the ICD-11 warrants examination of risk factors using diagnostic criteria as there is a paucity of research that has examined risk factors of PGD using the diagnostic criteria. This study examines if the identified risk factors for prolonged grief predict PGD using the diagnostic criteria across three samples. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to assess risk factors and PG-13 in three distinct samples of bereaved adults. The PG-13 was either parsed dichotomously using the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria to indicate presence of PGD or summed to index general grief severity. Results: When using ICD-11 diagnostic criteria, only female gender and high levels of pre-loss contact were identified in separate samples as increasing risk of diagnosis. The most replicable results across samples were found when using the summed PG-13 symptom scores. When using the PG-13 total score, younger age and more pre-loss contact with the deceased were associated with higher symptom levels, which replicated in all three studies. Conclusions: This study provided evidence that the extant literature using summed scores to explore risk factors might not generalize to the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature indicates laypeople hold strong opinions about how persons should grieve. This study examined how individuals perceive normal grief. Participants across two distinct samples (Study 1: N = 510 via MTurk; Study 2: N = 210 via Qualtrics panels) completed the Perception of Grief Scale and Grief Expectations Questionnaire. Findings indicated participants endorsed maladaptive grief responses as normal relative to other responses to loss. Endorsement of maladaptive grief responses as normal predicted endorsement of grief work beliefs. If social expectations deem maladaptive grief to be normal, as this study suggests, bereaved individuals might implicitly push themselves to grieve maladaptively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children of incarcerated parents may grieve this loss, yet perceptions of their grief are understudied. Using vignettes varying by age (adult/child) and grief response (prolonged/resilient), we examined differences between perceptions of adults and children grieving parental incarceration. Participants rated grief response appropriateness, comfort providing support, and grief therapy recommendations for the grieving person in the vignette. Participants perceived resilience as more appropriate than prolonged grief [F (1, 224) = 9.02, p = .003, η2 = .04]. Age did not predict outcomes. Recommending grief therapy was higher for prolonged grief, yet 53% of participants with resilient vignettes recommended the person should seek grief therapy, which is concerning given possible iatrogenic effects. Thus, laypeople may have stigma toward individuals grieving parental incarceration, regardless of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy’s findings from a William Penn Foundation–funded multiyear evaluation of four family literacy programs in Philadelphia. Drawing from qualitative research findings from 2019 to 2021, the article details the creative ways in which these programs implemented remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue providing family literacy services to families in Philadelphia. It describes changes in communication between instructors and families and highlights the increased focus on technology, digital literacy, and mental health concerns that occurred during this unprecedented time. The difficulties that programs, instructors, and families faced and the innovative ways they were handled by family literacy programs are also described. Finally, the article draws on these findings to discuss lessons learned from this sudden shift to remote instruction and describes the inventive practices that can be implemented in other adult and family literacy programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary changes in family literacy instruction, forcing face-to-face programmes to shift rapidly (or "on the fly") to online, remote instruction. This study is one of the few on online teaching and learning in family literacy and, to the knowledge of the authors, the first on emergency remote instruction in a family literacy programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines how the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University in the United States has responded to the pandemic by converting its face-to-face family literacy classes into emergency remote instruction using online platforms. Serving eight immigrant families in 2019-2020 who live in the State College area in central Pennsylvania, the Family Pathways programme includes adult education, parent education and interactive parent-child literacy activities. The article discusses how teachers created online learning opportunities for parents and children to learn together, the strategies and resources instructors used to teach remotely, how challenges such as discomfort with technology were addressed, and what has been learned from the experience. Although COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenges for educators and learners in family literacy programmes more broadly, it has also compelled instructors in this particular programme to use remote instruction creatively and has revealed the critical importance of family literacy programmes as an educational support system for low-income and immigrant families., (© UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Springer Nature B.V. 2020.)