Linked Lives and Childhood Experience of Family Death on Educational Attainment

Abstract

Sociological theory and research suggest that experiencing family members’ deaths during childhood and adolescence is an important event subject to significant disparities. Previous research links immediate family members’ deaths to poor life outcomes, but it considers a limited set of family members and has not tested the association of family member death with educational attainment. In this study the authors estimate the rates and educational impacts of experiencing the deaths of immediate (siblings, parents) and extended (aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents) family members during childhood and adolescence for black and white Americans. The authors find that family death is associated with educational attainment, but the associations differ by family member type and gender and child’s race. Experiences of family death are unequally distributed by race and demonstrate complex associations with educational attainment. This research broadens life-course and family-systems theory by incorporating childhood family experiences of death on adult educational attainment and stratification.

Parental Death and Mid-adulthood Depressive Symptoms: The Importance of Life Course Stage and Parent’s Gender

“…Our descriptive results suggest that Black children and those with lower levels of parental education socially disproportionately experience parental death, aligning with results from prior studies indicating that socially disadvantaged groups are more likely to experience early familial loss (Donnelly et al 2018; Umberson 2003). Prior work also suggests that the long-term effects of early parental death differ by offspring’s race (Patterson et al 2020). Similarly, gendered expressions of mental distress (Rosenfield and Mouzon 2013) and gendered family roles and relationships alter the effects of parental loss for daughters and sons (Leopold and Lechner 2015).…”

“…At the same time, macro-social patterns in population health have important implications for family dynamics across life stages (Bengston and Allen 1993). For example, population trends in increased life expectancy mean that offspring are spending longer periods of life with family members (Hagestad 2003; Patterson, Verdery, and Daw 2020). In turn, these trends generate expectations of typical and atypical timing of parental death, referred to as “on-time” and “off-time,” based on the offspring’s age at the time of loss (Leopold and Lechner 2015).…”

“…Off-time losses are often emotionally and psychologically traumatic (Hagestad 2003; Rostila and Saarela 2011). The relative rarity of off-time loss means that bereaved offspring have few peers with similar experiences (Patterson et al 2020). This dearth can lead to isolation or reduced peer support, an important resource that can buffer distress associated with parental death (Porter and Claridge 2019).…”

Estimates from 11 countries show the significant impact of COVID-19 excess mortality on the incidence of family bereavement

“…Each United States COVID-19 death leaves nine close kin bereaved [3], including 0.078 children aged 0 to 17 experiencing parental bereavement [4], and the pandemic has resulted in over one million new orphans under age 18 globally as of May 2021 [5]. This will have important population health and welfare implications given the known negative consequences of kin loss, including declines in physical and mental health and the loss of social and economic support [6,7,8]. What remains to be better understood, however, is how these increases in population-wide bereavement shape individual-level risks of losing relatives-by how much does the incidence of kin loss increase in periods of high excess mortality, and which demographic groups are likely to be affected?…”

Estimates from 31 countries show the significant impact of COVID-19 excess mortality on the incidence of family bereavement

“…Each US COVID-19 death leaves nine close kin bereaved ( 3 ), including 0.078 children aged 0 to 17 y experiencing parental bereavement ( 4 ), and the pandemic has resulted in over 1 million new orphans under age 18 y globally as of May 2021 ( 5 ). This will have important population health and welfare implications given the known negative consequences of kin loss, including declines in physical and mental health and the loss of social and economic support ( 6 – 8 ). What remains to be better understood, however, is how these increases in population-wide bereavement shape individual-level risks of losing relatives—by how much does the incidence of kin loss increase in periods of high excess mortality, and which demographic groups are likely to be affected?…”