Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Parental bereavement is often considered one of the most harrowing life experiences. Yet, little is known about losing an adult child in older age. In this qualitative, descriptive study, nine interviews lasting 45 to 120 minutes were conducted with parents who were 65 years or older at the time of their adult child's death. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by two researchers independently. Four main themes were identified: disbelief, injustice, uncertainty, and readjustment. The themes were then compared and contrasted with the extant literature to support validity of the findings. The results have implications for future research and practice.

Keywords

bereavement grief child loss parental bereavement geriatric bereavement

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Case

Deaton

(2017). Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2017, 397. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2017.0005

Cope

D. G.

(2014, January). Methods and meanings: credibility and trustworthiness of qualitative research. Oncology Nursing Forum, 41(1), 89–91. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24368242/

DeVries

Davis

C. G.

Wortman

C. B.

Lehman

D. R.

(1997). Long-term psychological and somatic consequences of later life parental bereavement. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 35(1), 97–117. https://doi.org/10.2190/39HG-YLKC-4CUV-NRAF

Donnelly

Umberson

Hummer

R. A.

Garcia

M. A.

(2020). Race, death of a child, and mortality risk among aging parents in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 249, 112853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112853

Floyd

F. J.

Mailick Seltzer

Greenberg

J. S.

Song

(2013). Parental bereavement during mid-to-later life: Pre-to postbereavement functioning and intrapersonal resources for coping. Psychology and Aging, 28(2), 402. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029986

Gerrish

N. J.

Bailey

(2020). Maternal grief: A qualitative investigation of mothers’ responses to the death of a child from cancer. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 81(2), 197–241. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0030222818762190

Goodman

Rubinstein

R. L.

Alexander

B. B.

Luborsky

(1991). Cultural differences among elderly women in coping with the death of an adult child. Journal of Gerontology, 46(6), S321–S329. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/46.6.S321

Guba

Lincoln

(1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In Denzin

Lincoln

(Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). Sage.

Joszt

(Nov. 30, 2018). CDC data: Life expectancy decreases as deaths from suicide, drug overdose increase . https://www.ajmc.com/view/cdc-data-life-expectancy-decreases-as-deaths-from-suicide-drug-overdose-increase

10.

Kirby

J. N.

Hoang

N. P. T.

(2018). Parenting of adult children: A neglected area of parenting studies. In Sanders

M. R.

Morawska

(Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development across the lifespan (pp. 653–675). Springer Publishing Company.

11.

Klass

Marwit

S. J.

(1989). Toward a model of parental grief. Omega-Journal of Death and Dying, 19(1), 31–50. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/BVUR-67KR-F52F-VW35

12.

Knodel

Zimmer

Kim

K. S.

Puch

(2007). The effect on elderly parents in Cambodia of losing an adult child to AIDS. Population and Development Review, 33(3), 479–500. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2007.00181.x

13.

Lesher

E. L.

Bergey

K. J.

(1988). Bereaved elderly mothers: Changes in health, functional activities, family cohesion, and psychological well-being. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 26(2), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.2190/XMCL-MY7G-96R0-FCCP

14.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Guba

E. G.

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.

15.

Lydall

A. M.

Pretorius

H. G.

Stuart

(2005). Give sorrow words: The meaning of parental bereavement. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2005.11433903

16.

Malkinson

Bar-Tur

(1999). The aging of grief in Israel: A perspective of bereaved parents. Death Studies, 23(5), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/074811899200939

17.

Malkinson

Bar-Tur

(2000). The aging of grief: Parents' grieving of Israeli soldiers. Journal of Personal and Interpersonal Loss, 5(2–3), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/10811440008409755

18.

Moore

A. R.

(2008). Older poor parents who lost an adult child to AIDS in Togo, West Africa: A qualitative study. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 56(3), 289–304. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.56.3.e

19.

Murphy

S. L.

Kohchanek

Arias

(2021). Mortality in the United States, 2020 . https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db427.pdf

20.

National Center for Health Statistics (2021). Health, United States, 2019. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:100685.

21.

Nowell

L. S.

Norris

J. M.

White

D. E.

Moules

N. J.

(2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1609406917733847. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847

22.

Parse

R. R.

(2001). Qualitative inquiry: The path of sciencing. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

23.

Ryan

Coughlan

Cronin

(2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: Qualitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16(12), 738–744. https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjon.2007.16.12.23726?journalCode=bjon

24.

Safa

Adib-Hajbaghery

Rezaei

Araban

(2021). The meaning of losing a child in older adults: A qualitative study. BMC geriatrics, 21(1), 1–9. https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-021-02609-9

25.

Smith

M. E.

Nunley

B. L.

Kerr

P. L.

Galligan

(2011). Elders’ experiences of the death of an adult child. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 32(9), 568–574. https://doi.org/10.3109/01612840.2011.576802

26.

Span

(Oct. 23, 2017). A child’s death brings ‘trauma that doesn’t go away’. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/health/children-death-elderly-grief.html

27.

Suitor

J. J.

Hou

Stepniak

Frase

R. T.

Ogle

(2022). Parent–adult child ties and older adult health and well-being. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190632366.013.383

28.

Swedberg

(2020). Exploratory research. In Elman

Gerring

Mahoney

(Eds.), The production of knowledge: Enhancing progress in social science (pp. 17–41). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108762519

29.

Titlestad

K. B.

Mellingen

Stroebe

Dyregrov

(2020). Sounds of silence. The “special grief” of drug-death bereaved parents: A qualitative study. Addiction Research & Theory, 1–11. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/16066359.2020.1751827

30.

Umberson

Olson

J. S.

Crosnoe

Liu

Pudrovska

Donnelly

(2017). Death of family members as an overlooked source of racial disadvantage in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(5), 915–920. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605599114

31.

Wang

(2021). “It is not simply the loss of a child”: The challenges facing parents who have lost their only child in post-reproductive age in China. Death Studies, 45(3), 209–218. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07481187.2019.1626941

32.

Weed

L. D.

(2007). Lifelong hurt: Older parents’ experience after the death of an adult child. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 9(1), 22–30. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/jhpn/pages/default.aspx

33.

Wright

P. M.

(2022). Parental bereavement in older age: A scoping review. Illness, Crisis, & Loss, 30(30), 531–571. https://doi.org/10.1177/1054137321995811

34.

Zetumer

Young

I.,

Shear

M. K.

Skritskaya

Lebowitz

Simon

Zisook

(2015). The impact of losing a child on the clinical presentation of complicated grief. Journal of Affective Disorders, 170, 15–21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4253869/pdf/nihms628115.pdf

Parental Bereavement in Older age: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References