Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.

Abstract

The death of a child is a traumatic event that can have long-term effects on the lives of parents. This study examined bereaved parents of deceased children (infancy to age 34) and comparison parents with similar backgrounds (n = 428 per group) identified in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. An average of 18.05 years following the death, when parents were age 53, bereaved parents reported more depressive symptoms, poorer well-being, and more health problems and were more likely to have experienced a depressive episode and marital disruption than were comparison parents. Recovery from grief was associated with having a sense of life purpose and having additional children but was unrelated to the cause of death or the amount of time since the death. The results point to the need for detection and intervention to help those parents who are experiencing lasting grief. Keywords bereavement; nonnormative parenting; death of child; parental grief; midlife Each year, over 50,000 U.S. children die (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 2000). The death of a child is one of the most painful events that an adult can experience and is linked to complicated/traumatic grief reactions (Prigerson et al., 1999). For parents, the dissolution of the attachment relationship with the child elicits severe anxiety and other negative emotions associated with loss (Bowlby, 1980). Parents might also experience guilt about having been unable to protect the child (Gilbert, 1997). Furthermore, because the death of a child defies the expected order of life events, many parents experience the event as a challenge to basic existential assumptions (Wheeler, 2001).In light of the significance of child death as a traumatic experience for parents, research on parental bereavement is more limited than might be expected. Most studies have been clinical NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript descriptions of participants in grief support groups (e.g., Compassionate Friends), so the findings likely have been influenced both by the self-selection factors that led individuals to seek this type of help and by the participants' experiences in the support groups. As a result, the findings cannot be generalized to the broader population of bereaved parents. Furthermore, drawing from traditional models of grief resolution that emphasize relatively short-term adaptations, researchers have usually assessed functioning for only a brief period during the acute phase of bereavement. Few studies have examined longer term outcomes, and most that have done so have used retrospective reports, which are subject to distortion when individuals recall their functioning many years earlier (e.g., Nelson & Frantz, 1996;Stehbens & Lascari, 1974).The purpose of the present study was to examine the life course impacts of parental bereavement in an unselected sample of adults who were studied prospectively from early adulthood, prior to the birth of the child, to middle age, usually many years after the death of the child. We ide...

Positive Outcomes Following Bereavement: Paths to Posttraumatic Growth

“…For many people the distress triggered by loss does not dissipate within a few short months, but it can last for many years (Carnelley, Wortman, Bolger, & Burke, 2006;Rogers, Floyd, Seltzer, Greenberg, & Hong, 2008). Conversely, however, the assumption that the loss of a loved one inevitably produces high levels of enduring psychological distress also has been found to be incorrect, at least for a significant proportion of bereaved persons .…”

“…Religion/spirituality may serve as both a framework promoting growth through increased sense of meaning and purpose (Rogers et al, 2008), as well as a form of growth through deepening faith and conviction. Finding meaning in one's life following a loved one's death can represent a spiritual change that may result from bereavement (Balk, 1999).…”

Latent profiles of physical and psychological outcomes of bereaved parents in China who lost their only child

“…Previous research has found that bereaved parents may experience mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, prolonged grief disorder (PGD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal behaviours (Harper, O’Connor, & O’Carroll, 2014; Lannen, Wolfe, Prigerson, Onelov, & Kreicbergs, 2008; Rogers, Floyd, Seltzer, Greenberg, & Hong, 2008). The loss of a child is also associated with worse physical health problems in the long term (Lannen et al, 2008).…”

What aspects of post-traumatic growth are experienced by bereaved parents? A systematic review

“…The death of a child can lead to parents experiencing long-term negative psychological responses, such as increased depressive symptoms (Rogers, Floyd, Seltzer, & Hong, 2008), anxiety (Buchi et al, 2007), and complicated grief (Zetumer et al, 2015). Bereaved parents have also been found to experience relationship difficulties (Rogers et al, 2008) and poorer physical health (Li, Hansen, Bo Mortensen, & Olsen, 2002).…”

“…Bereaved parents have also been found to experience relationship difficulties (Rogers et al, 2008) and poorer physical health (Li, Hansen, Bo Mortensen, & Olsen, 2002). In a study of bereavement outcomes, Gamino, Sewell, and Easterling (2000) highlighted that one of the factors associated with increased experiences of grief was younger age of the deceased.…”