Influences on Grief among Parentally Bereaved Adults

Abstract

Although the parent-child relationship is significant throughout life, many changes occur as children grow, particularly during young adulthood. Parental loss and resulting grief during adulthood is likely influenced by many variables, including age, gender, relationship quality, and sex roles. In the present study, parentally bereaved adults completed measures assessing parental involvement, personal grief and adjustment, and sex role preferences. Analyses of covariance indicated that gender of the bereaved child was significant in predicting some aspects of grief, wherein females were more strongly impacted by the loss of a parent, irrespective of that parent's sex. However, the interaction of sex of parent and sex of child was also significant, suggesting that maternal loss may be particularly difficult for daughters. Results suggested that women may have a stronger emotional experience of grief and maintain closer bonds with a deceased mother. This may result from deeper emotional connections, feeling excluded by age peers, or vulnerability for rumination.

The “How” and “When” of Parental Loss in Adulthood

“…This research in part replicates that of Carver et al (2014) in that gender of the child was found to be a significant factor affecting the grief in response to the response of the individuals, with females expressing more grief than men, consistent with the findings of Marks et al (2007). As we found that daughters had greater difficulty with parental loss, it may be, as suggested by McLeod (1991), that men experience a significant grief response to the death of a parent that was not identified by the measures in this study due to gender differences in the expression of grief (see Martin & Doka, 2000).…”

“…Moreover, young adult women expressed more difficulty in coping with the loss of a mother than with the loss of a father. However, their findings did not indicate that gender of the parent per se was significant in impacting either grief or adjustment (Carver et al, 2014). However, this research study failed to take into account cause of death and was limited to young adults.…”

“…The BEQ-24 (see Hayslip et al, 1999) is a standardized 4-point Likert-type measurement intended to assess a variety of aspects of grief and bereavement. The original BEQ comprises 67 items with eight theoretically derived subscales (guilt, anger, meaninglessness, yearning, depersonalization, stigma, morbid fears, and isolation; Carver et al, 2014;Guarnaccia & Hayslip, 1998;Hayslip et al, 1999). Internal consistency reliabilities of .70 to .84 were found using the original BEQ subscales in a study focused on individuals grieving a loss occurring within the previous 5 years (Guarnaccia & Hayslip, 1998).…”

“…Peterson and Rafuls (1998) observed that comparatively little research has been conducted on the adult child's grief response to the loss of a parent. In this respect, Carver, Hayslip, Gilley, and Watts (2014) examined the effects of gender roles on grief among parentally bereaved young adults and found that the gender of the child was significant with females scoring higher than males. This finding supported their hypothesis that women expressed more grief than men at the loss of a parent.…”

“…We also expect that the impact of the loss of a parent will vary with gender of both the deceased parent and the adult child survivor, with women being more impacted by the loss of a mother and a greater impact for men in losing a father (see Carver et al, 2014). We also expect that younger adults will be more impacted by parental loss than middle-aged adults, due to the nonnormative nature for the former age group.…”