DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06140
title: Families of Missing Children: Psychological Consequences and Promising Interventions in the United States, 1989-1991
title: Archival Version

description: This study was conducted to examine the psychological reactions experienced by families of missing children and to evaluate families' utilization of and satisfaction with intervention services. To address issues of psychological consequences, the events occurring prior to child loss, during the experience of child loss, and after child recovery (if applicable) were studied from multiple perspectives within the family by interviewing parents, spouses, siblings, and, when possible, the missing child. A sample of 249 families with one or more missing children were followed with in-home interviews, in a time series measurement design. Three time periods were used: Time Series 1, within 45 days of disappearance, Time Series 2, at 4 months post-disappearance, and Time Series 3, at 8 months post-disappearance. Three groups of missing children and their families were studied: loss from alleged nonfamily abduction (stranger), loss by alleged family or parental abduction, and loss by alleged runaway. Cases were selected from four confidential sites in the United States. The files in this collection consist of data from detailed structured interviews (Parts 1-22) and selected quantitative nationally-normed measurement instruments (Parts 23-33). Structured interview items covered: (1) family of origin for parents of the missing child or children, (2) demographics of the current family with the missing child or children, (3) conditions in the family before the child's disappearance, (4) circumstances of the child's disappearance, (5) perception of the child's disappearance, (6) missing child search, (7) nonmissing child, concurrent family stress, (8) coping with the child's disappearance, (9) coping with a nonmissing child, concurrent family stress, (10) missing child recovery, if applicable, (11) recovered child reunification with family, if applicable, and (12) resource and assistance evaluation. With respect to intervention services, utilization of and satisfaction with these services were assessed in each of the following categories: law enforcement services, mental health services, missing child center services, within-family social support, and community social support. The quantitative instruments collected data on family members' stress levels and reactions to stress, using the Symptom Check List-90, Achenbach Child Behavior Check List, Family Inventory of Life Events, F-COPES, Frederick Trauma Reaction Index-Adult, and Frederick Trauma Reaction Index-Child.
description: This study was conducted to examine the psychological reactions experienced by families of missing children and to evaluate families' utilization of and satisfaction with intervention services, including law enforcement services, mental health services, missing child center services, within-family social support, and community social support. The results of the research should help to clarify the nature of the missing child event, and to identify various coping strategies and successful intervention services.
description: Data were collected from 249 families of missing children in several categories: alleged family abduction, alleged nonfamily abduction (stranger), and alleged runaway. The project design provided for the measurement of multiple perspectives within each family. One parent figure, at the request of the project staff interviewer, was self-designated as the Primary Respondent. If the Primary Respondent had a married or other live-in relationship with another adult, this individual was designated as the Partner. The oldest sibling in the home over the age of 8 and under the age of 18 was designated as the representative Sibling for the project. The Missing Child, if recovered and over the age of 8, was a project participant as well. The project incorporated a repeated measures, time series, multiple perspective design utilizing quantitative and project-specific measurement instrumentation administered in person. The project assessment package was divided into two major sections, structured interviews and quantitative instruments. Family contact and case selection were accomplished through four confidential field sites in the United States. Each site had a full-time family interviewer located there. By the conclusion of the project, each remaining family case had completed three time series interviews (Time Series 1, within 45 days of disappearance, Time Series 2, at 4 months post-disappearance, and Time Series 3, at 8 months post-disappearance). In addition, if the missing child was recovered, a fourth round of interviews (Recovery files) was completed.
description: Structured interview items covered: (1) family of origin for parents of the missing child or children, (2) demographics of the current family with the missing child or children, (3) conditions in the family before the child's disappearance, (4) circumstances of the child's disappearance, (5) perception of the child's disappearance, (6) missing child search, (7) nonmissing child, concurrent family stress, (8) coping with the child's disappearance, (9) coping with a nonmissing child, concurrent family stress, (10) missing child recovery, if applicable, (11) recovered child reunification with family, if applicable, and (12) resource and assistance evaluation. The second section of the assessment package, quantitative instruments, was composed of six established psychometric instruments. These were selected because they represented empirically-validated measures of domains central to the study of trauma response: (1) clinical symptoms of adults (SCL-90 of Derogatis et al.), (2) an inventory of adult reaction to trauma (Frederick Trauma Reaction Index Form A), (3) an inventory of child reaction to trauma (Frederick Trauma Reaction Index Form C), (4) clinical symptoms of children (CBCL of Achenbach), (5) an inventory of family stressors (FILE), and (6) an inventory of family coping resources (F-COPES).
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Presence of Common Scales: The project assessment package included six quantitative nationally-normed measurement instruments: Symptom Check List-90, Achenbach Child Behavior Check List, Family Inventory of Life Events, F-COPES, Frederick Trauma Reaction Index-Adult, and Frederick Trauma Reaction Index-Child.
description: Response Rates: Not applicable.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Family Information Sheet Data -- Primary Respondent 
 DS2: Family History Questionnaire and First Missing Child Data, Time Series 1 -- Primary Respondent 
 DS3: Family History Questionnaire and First Missing Child Data, Time Series 1 -- Partner 
 DS4: Sibling Questionnaire Data, Time Series 1 
 DS5: Second Missing Child Questionnaire Data, Time Series 1 -- Primary Respondent 
 DS6: Second Missing Child Questionnaire Data, Time Series 1 -- Partner 
 DS7: Family History Questionnaire Data, Time Series 2 -- Primary Respondent 
 DS8: Family History Questionnaire Data, Time Series 2 -- Partner 
 DS9: Sibling Questionnaire Data, Time Series 2 
 DS10: Missing Child Questionnaire Data, Time Series 2 
 DS11: Family History Questionnaire Data, Time Series 3 -- Primary Respondent 
 DS12: Family History Questionnaire Data, Time Series 3 -- Partner 
 DS13: Sibling Questionnaire Data, Time Series 3 
 DS14: Missing Child Questionnaire Data, Time Series 3 
 DS15: Recovery Questionnaire Data, All Types of Disappearances -- Primary Respondent 
 DS16: Recovery Questionnaire Data, All Types of Disappearances -- Partner 
 DS17: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Stranger/Parental Abductions, First Missing Child -- Primary Respondent 
 DS18: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Runaway Episode, First Missing Child -- Primary Respondent 
 DS19: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Stranger/Parental Abductions, Second Missing Child -- Primary Respondent 
 DS20: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Runaway Episode, Second Missing Child -- Primary Respondent 
 DS21: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Stranger/Parental Abductions -- Missing Child 
 DS22: Recovery Questionnaire Data, Alleged Runaway Episode -- Missing Child 
 DS23: Clinical Symptoms of Adults (SCL-90) -- Primary Respondent 
 DS24: Frederick Trauma Reaction Index -- Primary Respondent 
 DS25: Frederick Trauma Reaction Index -- Partner 
 DS26: Frederick Trauma Reaction Index -- Sibling 
 DS27: Frederick Trauma Reaction Index -- First Missing Child 
 DS28: Frederick Trauma Reaction Index -- Second Missing Child 
 DS29: Clinical Symptoms of Children (CBCL) -- First Missing Child 
 DS30: Clinical Symptoms of Children (CBCL) -- Second Missing Child 
 DS31: Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes -- Primary Respondent 
 DS32: Family Crisis-Oriented Personal Scales -- Primary Respondent 
 DS33: Family Crisis-Oriented Personal Scales -- Partner
description: The responses to the quantitative measurement instruments from the three time periods were merged into one file per instrument/respondent (Parts 23-33). The numeric suffix of the variables indicates the time period to which the variables apply.
description: Families of missing children in the United States.
description: Families of children missing due to family abduction and runaway were randomly selected for invitation to participate in the project from four confidential sites in the United States. Because of relatively small case flow, virtually all nonfamily abduction cases were invited to participate.