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This study is based upon personal interviews with 47 elderly bereaved parents. These interviews provided us with detailed and extensive information on the bereavement processes that parents experience over a long period of years. From an in-depth content analysis of the interviews and the way the parents described bereavement, it seems that it is a central motif in their lives affecting their relationships with each other, with the living children, with friends, at work and with others. Although enduring grief along the life cycle is an un-patterned process with emotional and cognitive ups and downs, involving a continuous search for a meaning to life, we observed a development in this process throughout the years. As we proposed in a previous study (Malkinson & Bar-Tur, 2000) there are three main identifiable phases in the bereavement process: the immediate, acute phase; grief through the years until aging; and bereavement in old age. We propose to refer to them as the three main phases in the development of parental grieving process and name them “young grief,” “mature grief,” and “aging grief.”

This article overviews positive aging concepts and strategies to enhance well-being in the elderly and then presents a translation of theories on positive aging to practical approaches for Positive Aging. Drawing upon positive psychology and positive aging research and tools, this program is designed to help older adults improve their well-being by acquiring skills and strategies to cope with present and future challenges. The Mental Fitness Program for Positive Aging (MFPPA) can enhance seniors' quality of life by increasing their vital involvement and active engagement in life. This model is most appropriate for community dwelling individuals. It can easily be conducted in wide range of adult education programs in community centers, sheltered homes, and primary care clinics. It can also be conducted through online psychoeducational training.

Studies of the link between parental grief and subsequent morbidity and mortality risks have yielded inconclusive results. We aim to investigate whether the death of a child is related to increased mortality in older parents. Data were drawn from a national survey of a random sample of older Jewish persons in Israel, conducted during 1989-1992. Analyses included 1239 self-respondent community-dwelling and institutionalized participants ages 75-94 years (M = 83.1, SD = 5.3) from the Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Aging Study (CALAS). Mortality data at 20-year follow-up were recorded from the Israeli National Population Registry. Bereaved parents were somewhat older, and were more likely than nonbereaved parents to be women, unmarried, less educated, living alone, and born in the Middle East or North Africa. Bereaved parents were more depressed and functionally limited than were nonbereaved parents, even after controlling for age and gender. The longitudinal analysis showed that parental bereavement was a significant predictor of mortality at 20-year follow-up. The effect of bereavement on mortality persisted after controlling for age, gender, origin, education, and widowhood status. It was more potent for women (mothers) than for men (fathers). Whereas parental bereavement due to war is most frequently discussed in the Israeli context, parental bereavement is mostly associated with disadvantageous socioeconomic situations and life conditions. Contrary to some previous findings, results highlight the hazardous long-term effect of bereavement on mortality.

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