Unique grief experiences: The needs of emerging adults facing the death of a parent

Exploring Post-Traumatic Growth Among Young Adults Coping With Parental Loss: The Role of Resilience and of Willingness to Seek Psychological Help

This study examined the roles of resilience and willingness to seek psychological help in influencing Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) among 173 emerging adults who experienced parental loss during their school years. A positive relationship was found between resilience, the willingness to seek psychological help, and PTG. Participants who endured loss over five years prior manifested increased PTG (New-Possibilities, Spiritual Change, and Appreciation of Life sub-scales) relative to those with more recent losses. The multiple regression model was notable, accounting for 33% of the variance in PTG. Both resilience and the willingness to seek psychological help assistance significantly predicted PTG, surpassing other predictors in the model. It is worth noting that the type of loss, whether sudden or anticipated, did not alter PTG levels. In essence, this study underscores the enduring positive psychological impact of parental loss on emerging adults, highlighting the critical need for comprehensive psychological resources and support for such individuals.

Coping Following Bereavement: Comparing European American and Japanese Emerging Adults

Although bereavement is an experience emerging adults of every culture go through, there is limited cross-cultural research on coping following bereavement. Therefore, this study aimed to explore similarities and differences between European American and Japanese emerging adults regarding their experiences with coping strategies following a death, with consideration of cultural rituals related to bereavement. Open-ended 30- to 50-min virtual interviews were conducted among 7 European American and 7 Japanese adults between the ages of 20-30 years old. Through qualitative analysis researchers found that for both cultures, reported characteristics of coping strategies typically aligned with conceptions of emotion engagement and emotion disengagement coping, as defined in Tobin's Coping Strategies Inventory (2001). Both cultures reported similar coping strategies, although European Americans reported a greater variety of activities within the coping categories. Some coping behaviors could not be categorized under either coping strategy, implying a need for more research and conceptual refinement.

Parental Death and Mid-adulthood Depressive Symptoms: The Importance of Life Course Stage and Parent's Gender

Traditional theories of grief suggest that individuals experience short-term increases in depressive symptoms following the death of a parent. However, growing evidence indicates that effects of parental bereavement may persist. Situating the short- and long-term effects of parental death within the life course perspective, we assess the combined influence of time since loss and life course stage at bereavement on mental health for maternal and paternal death. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,877) to examine biological parental death from childhood to mid-adulthood, we find that those who experience recent maternal or paternal death have heightened depressive symptoms. Furthermore, those who experience maternal death in childhood or paternal death in young adulthood exhibit long-term consequences for mental health. Our findings underscore the theoretical importance of early life course stages and parent's gender when determining whether depressive symptoms persist following parental bereavement.

Beyond a traumatic loss: The experiences of mourning alone after parental death during COVID-19 pandemic

Millions of adolescents around the world lost their loved ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic; at the same time, health protocols in many countries do not allow mourners to practice their familiar rituals around death and dying. This study explored the experience of 15 Iranian adolescents who had lost their parent(s) during the pandemic through a phenomenological approach. Two main themes including distress in a shattered life and crisis in crisis were extracted from the interviews. Findings highlight the importance of immediate and alternative ways of support for adolescents who lost their parents during the pandemic.