Death and the Child: An Anterospective Test of the Childhood Bereavement and Later Behavior Disorder Hypothesis

Abstract

Does parental loss through death in childhood have a long-term effect on a person, or is the experience generally normalized in a relatively short period of time? Our anterospective identification of a thirty-three year old cohort and the comparative analysis of behavioral and attitudinal data indicates that there are differential consequences in early middle age, but that differences are not as great nor in the direction suggested by previous studies. In particular, the interaction of childhood divorce experience and bereavement emerged as an important sociological pattern.