Responding to Maternal Loss: A Phenomenological Study of Older Orphans in Youth-Headed Households in Impoverished Areas of South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore how older orphans in youth-headed households (YHHs) experience and respond to maternal death and to examine the strategies they employ to care for their younger siblings. We interviewed 18 older orphans who were purposively selected from YHHs located in informal settlements in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. After the death of their mothers, the orphans lost the family home, lost support from their relatives, lost friendships, lost educational opportunities, and lost childhood. The orphans experienced prolonged pain, sadness, anxieties, fear, loneliness despondency, and deep-rooted and persistent anger towards their mother for dying. They suffered from prolonged bereavement because they had been denied the opportunity to mourn the loss of their parents and yearned persistently but silently for their dead mothers. Dropping out of school to seek employment in order to care for their siblings was one of the main coping strategies that older orphans used. However, dropping out of school early robbed them of their future goals of getting an educational qualification. The orphans had not been prepared for taking on an adult role and were given no support or counselling to help them recover from their parents’ death. Continuous grief counselling should form an integral component of the psychosocial support services that are provided to orphans soon after the death of a parent.

Exploring the School-Based Support for Youths Who Head Households in Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…That helps me to make money that I use to survive.” This is in line with the observation by Kurebwa and Kurebwa (2014), who found that children survive by selling family property, getting assistance from childcare organizations, or resorting to dropping out of school. This is supported by Ntuli et al (2020), who states that youths heading households drop out of school to ensure they take care of their siblings.…”

Elderly Diary as a Productive Activity Towards Successful Aging in the Elderly at Social Institutional

“…On SO himself, he never experienced pain while in the orphanage (Ntuli et al, 2020). According to the employee's narrative, this is related to SO's past, who was retired from the TNI so that his health is still strong and he has never been sick.…”

Being there: A scoping review on psychosocial challenges faced by adolescents during bereavement in the Southern African Development Community

“…In the articles we sampled, we have found that adolescents in SADC experience psychological challenges in the form of experiencing feelings of hopelessness [38,41,42] , low self-esteem [38] anger [38,41] , and inability to deal with grief and suicidal thoughts [38,42] , shock and confusion [38,40] and they are imposed to counselling [39] , denial [40] , during the bereavement period.…”

“…In terms of the social challenges, the sampled articles indicated that adolescents are unable to engage in social activities [38,42] , are stigmatised in society [38] , have poor academic performance [38,40,42] , lack support from families and friends, unable to bury their loved ones due to their age [39] . It also emerged that after the loss of the breadwinner, some of the adolescents are abused by their relatives and lack financial support [42] .…”

“…Even though adolescents experience challenges, there are several coping mechanisms that adolescents use during the bereavement period. From the sampled articles it emerged that adolescents use substances [40] , bunk-of school [41] and isolate themselves from their peers [42] .…”