The following persons shall be conclusively presumed to be dependent for support upon a deceased employee: (1) A wife upon a husband with whom she is living or upon whom she is actually dependent at the time of his injury or death; (2) a husband upon a wife with whom he is living or upon whom he is actually dependent at the time of her injury or death; and (3) a child or children under the age of nineteen years, or over such age, if physically or mentally incapable of self-support, or any child nineteen years of age or over who is actually dependent, or any child between nineteen and twenty-five years of age who is enrolled as a full-time student in any accredited educational institution.

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The term child shall include a posthumous child, a child legally adopted or for whom adoption proceedings are pending at the time of death, an actually dependent child in relation to whom the deceased employee stood in the place of a parent for at least one year prior to the time of death, an actually dependent stepchild, or a child born out of wedlock. Child shall not include a married child unless receiving substantially entire support from the employee. Grandchild shall mean a child, as above defined, of a child, as above defined, except that as to the latter child, the limitations as to age in the above definition do not apply.

Brother or sister shall mean a brother or sister under nineteen years of age, or nineteen years of age or over and physically or mentally incapable of self-support, or nineteen years of age or over and actually dependent. The terms brother and sister shall include stepbrothers and stepsisters, half brothers and half sisters, and brothers and sisters by adoption but shall not include married brothers or married sisters unless receiving substantially entire support from the employee.

Parent shall mean a mother or father, a stepparent, a parent by adoption, a parent-in-law, and any person who for more than one year immediately prior to the death of the employee stood in the place of a parent to him or her, if actually dependent in each case.

Actually dependent shall mean dependent in fact upon the employee and shall refer only to a person who received more than half of his or her support from the employee and whose dependency is not the result of failure to make reasonable efforts to secure suitable employment. When used as a noun, the word dependent shall mean any person entitled to death benefits. No person shall be considered a dependent, unless he or she be a member of the family of the deceased employee, or bears to him or her the relation of widow, widower, lineal descendant, ancestor, brother, or sister. Questions as to who constitute dependents and the extent of their dependency shall initially be determined as of the date of the accident to the employee, and the death benefit shall be directly recoverable by and payable to the dependent or dependents entitled thereto or their legal guardians or trustees. No dependent of any injured employee shall be deemed, during the life of such employee, a party in interest to any proceeding by him or her for the enforcement or collection of any claim for compensation, nor as respects the compromise thereof by such employee.