An 8-Week Community-Based Resilience Group Intervention for Chinese Parents Who Lost Their Only Child: A Two-Armed Pragmatic Waitlist-Control Trial

Objective: This study developed and evaluated a structured, 8-week community-based resilience group intervention for Chinese parents who have lost their only child and exhibit extended bereavement and suboptimal levels of resilience. Method: Eighty parents were recruited from two communities and allocated to the intervention group (n = 42) or the waitlist-control group (n = 38). The 8-week community-based resilience group intervention was developed based on Kumpfer’s resilience theory and previous studies. The primary outcomes were resilience and depression, and the secondary outcomes were posttraumatic growth (PTG), subjective well-being (SWB), social avoidance (SAD), sleep quality, and serum dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels. Outcomes were assessed at four time points: before (T0), immediately after (T1), 3 months after (T2), and 12 months after (T3) the intervention. The data were analyzed following the intention-to-treat principle. Results: The general linear model results indicated a significant Group × Time interaction effect on resilience, depression, PTG, SWB, and SAD, with medium and large effect sizes (Cohen’s d: 0.58–1.41). Those in the intervention group experienced better resilience from T1 to T2 and better depression, PTG, SWB, and SAD from T1 to T3 compared to the waitlist-control group. No significant differences were found between groups over time for sleep quality and DHEA levels. Conclusions: This intervention effectively increased resilience by T2 and improved PTG, SWB, depression, and SAD by T3 compared with control group, which can be implemented in the local community setting and collaborated with social workers to assist bereaved parents in the future.