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

Abstract

Traditional theories of grief suggest that individuals experience short-term increases in depressive symptoms following the death of a parent. However, growing evidence indicates that effects of parental bereavement may persist. Situating the short- and long-term effects of parental death within the life course perspective, we assess the combined influence of time since loss and life course stage at bereavement on mental health for maternal and paternal death. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,877) to examine biological parental death from childhood to mid-adulthood, we find that those who experience recent maternal or paternal death have heightened depressive symptoms. Furthermore, those who experience maternal death in childhood or paternal death in young adulthood exhibit long-term consequences for mental health. Our findings underscore the theoretical importance of early life course stages and parent’s gender when determining whether depressive symptoms persist following parental bereavement.

Suicide Around the Anniversary of a Parent’s Death in Sweden

“…Even though losing a parent during adulthood is an expected event, it does not necessarily imply that the offspring's psychological and physical health will be unaffected. 29,30 Our findings of an increased risk of suicide in women around the anniversary provides an indication that bereavement may be associated with mental health outcomes among adult offspring. The claim for an association is made stronger by the use of the anniversary as an exposure exogenous to shared intergenerational characteristics, as well as the adoption of a within-individual design.…”

“…The highest risk observed among women losing a parent while being young is in line with previous literature, 16,17 showing that parental death experienced during young adulthood may be particularly detrimental, because perceived parental support is still high while transitioning to adulthood. 29 No association was found among women losing a parent between ages 35 and 50 years, which may reflect the protective role of a large and diverse social network that women tend to have at these ages, by taking on several roles within the family and at work. 32 This explanation is also consistent with another finding of this study, showing ever married women to be less vulnerable to the anniversary reaction, again reflecting the protective role of having their own family.…”

Exposure to Family Member Deaths Across the Life Course for Hispanic Individuals

“…A blended stress and life course per spec tive (Pearlin et al 2005) empha sizes the profound effects of stress ful events early in the life course. For exam ple, the death of a par ent in child hood or young adult hood has last ing effects on men tal health (Kamis et al 2022;Leopold and Lechner 2015;Maier and Lachman 2000), cog ni tive impairment (Conde-Sala and Garre-Olmo 2020; Liu et al 2022), and mor tal ity risk (Smith et al 2014) in mid to later life. Taken together, dif fer en tial expo sure to fam ily memberdeaths,espe ciallyearlyinthelifecourse,couldinflu encedif fer en tialtra jec to ries of health for Black, His panic, and White adults, thereby lead ing to health inequities later in life.…”

“…The death of a fam ily mem ber is often a turn ing point in a per son's life and has last ing con se quences for men tal health, phys i cal health, and mor tal ity risk (Jacobs and Bovasso 2009;Maier and Lachman 2000;Smith et al 2014;Stroebe et al 2007;Umberson 2017). The death of a par ent in child hood can have espe cially pro found effects on long-term health and well-being (Kamis et al 2022;Liu et al 2022;Maier and Lachman 2000;Mitchell et al 2017;Shonkoff et al 2012;Shonkoff et al 2021;Smith et al 2014). An unequal bur den of fam ily mem ber death among His panic and non-His panic Black pop u la tions, espe cially early in the life course, likely fuels inequities in health across the life course.…”

Familial Deaths and First Birth

“…We chose to measure recent death as one occurring in the past two years because dummy variables measuring years since the death indicated the effect lasted two years. This measurement is also motivated by research demonstrating that depression was highest in the two years following a parental death (Kamis, Stolte, and Copeland 2022). The date of death was based on retrospective data—collected in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2013—on the respondent's age at the family member's death.…”