Parents' Death and Adult Well‐being: Gender, Age, and Adaptation to Filial Bereavement

Abstract

The authors investigated how filial bereavement affects the subjective well‐being of adult children. They used data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study to examine temporal profiles of life satisfaction in 2,760 adult children ages 17–70 who moved through the stages of anticipation of, reaction to, and adaptation to a parent's death. Fixed effects models covering up to 11 yearly measurements per respondent revealed that the negative effects of parental loss on life satisfaction varied substantially by gender and age. First, daughters who lost their mothers experienced the deepest drops in life satisfaction. Second, negative effects were stronger if filial bereavement was “off time”: children who lost a parent in younger adulthood experienced steeper declines in life satisfaction. Daughters who are untimely bereaved of their mothers did not fully adapt even several years after the death.

Changing Sibling Relationships After Parents' Death: The Role of Solidarity and Kinkeeping

“…Another and larger line of research has examined the consequences of parental death for the well‐being of surviving family members, in particular the spouse and the children. These studies focus on the ways in which people cope with and adjust to the loss of spouses and parents (Leopold & Lechner, ; Marks, Jun, & Song, ; Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, ; Wortman, Cohen Silver, & Kessler, ). Few studies have looked at the intersection of the two themes.…”

“…Another and larger line of research has examined the consequences of parental death for the well-being of surviving family members, in particular the spouse and the children. These studies focus on the ways in which people cope with and adjust to the loss of spouses and parents (Leopold & Lechner, 2015; Based on theories about family solidarity (Bengtson & Roberts, 1991;Silverstein & Bengtson, 1997) and kinkeeping (Hagestad, 1986;Rosenthal, 1985), we derive hypotheses on how sibling relationships change after a parent dies. Our hypotheses posit contrasting effects of losing the first and second parent on cohesion among the family members left behind: According to the solidarity hypothesis, the death of the first parent fosters cohesion among adult siblings, an effect that partly results from increases in intergenerational solidarity with the surviving parent.…”

Retirement and Aging Parents in the Swedish Population

“…The relationship between older parents and adult children has been shown to strengthen after the death of the other parent (Eggebeen 1992;Roan and Raley 1996). In addition, the death of a parent has negative consequences on the adult children's health and wellbeing, particularly shortly after the death (Leopold and Lechner 2015;Umberson 2003). Therefore, presumably, the risk of retirement may differ depending on whether the parent is widowed, the gender of the parent, and the time since the parental death.…”

Losing or Choosing Faith: Mother Loss and Religious Change

“…Although the effects of experiencing the death of a parent on indicators of religiosity have not received much empirical attention, many studies investigate the consequences of parental death on psychological outcomes. Results from several studies indicate that parental loss has a negative initial effect on psychological well-being (Bonanno et al 2002;Leopold and Lechner 2015;Marks, Jun, and Song 2007;Melhem et al 2008Melhem et al , 2011Umberson and Chen 1994;Worden and Silverman 1996), but findings on the longer-term consequences of these losses are mixed. Numerous other studies compare the effects of divorce and death as two forms of parental loss on a range of adult outcomes (Amato 1988;Corak 2001;Mack 2001;Marwit and Carusa 1998;McLeod 1991;Rozendal 1983), but there is a notable absence of studies examining outcomes of religiosity.…”

“…Results from several studies indicate that parental loss has a negative initial effect on psychological well‐being (Bonanno et al. ; Leopold and Lechner ; Marks, Jun, and Song ; Melhem et al. , ; Umberson and Chen ; Worden and Silverman ), but findings on the longer‐term consequences of these losses are mixed.…”