Interviews with eighty-three adults aged thirty-five to sixty who had lost a parent one to five years previously found that 60 percent continued to experience emotional reactions and 44 percent continued to experience somatic reactions to the death. The majority also reported changes in their sense of maturity, personal priorities, work and/or career objectives, feelings about their own mortality, and the importance and nature of various social relationships. These impacts generally corresponded to developmentally significant midlife themes of autonomy, personal freedom, and responsibility.
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