Professor
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Area: Clinical

Contact Information

Email: cainac@umich.edu
Psychology Office: 2251 East Hall
Psychology Phone: 734-647-3874

Research and Teaching Interests

The focus of my longstanding research and teaching is child psychopathology and the effects of separation and loss experiences.

Major Current Research Projects

• Childhood Bereavement—a longitudinal study (with Saldinger) of a community sample of children, ages 6-16, whose parent died. Dual emphasis is placed on numerous variables affecting the developmental trajectory of parent loss outcomes, and on key psychological processes involved. Data derive from multiple sources, e.g., child, surviving parent, teacher, and multiple measures, e.g., in-depth interviews, standardized objective measures, demographics, projectives.
• Children of Suicide— studies of children whose parent committed suicide, employing a modified version of the childhood bereavement study methods outlined above.

Representative Publications

Cain, A.C. (2006). Parent suicide: Pathways of effects into the third generation. Psychiatry, 69(3), 204-227

Porterfield, K.A., Saldinger, A.L., & Cain, A. (2004). Meeting the needs of parentally bereaved children: a framework for child-centered parenting. Psychiatry, 67 (4), 331-352.

Saldinger, A., Cain, A., & Porterfield, K. (2003) Managing traumatic stress in children anticipating parental death. Psychiatry, 66(2), 168-181.

Kalter, N. et al. (2003) The Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved Children: I. Factors associated with short term adjustment. Omega, 46(1), 15-34.

Cain, A. (2002). Children of Suicide: The Telling and the Knowing. Psychiatry, 65(2), 124-136.

Saldinger, A., Cain, A.C., Kalter, N. & Lohnes, K. (1999) Anticipating parental deaths in families of young children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 69(1).

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