One of the most intense and painful losses is the death of a child. Whether the child is grown or still young, this type of loss contradicts the life cycle and typically is the result of an unexpected illness, accident, or tragedy of some sort. The grief resulting from such a loss is something that can only be understood by people who have experienced it. Research has shown that parents who lose a child have more negative health consequences than nonbereaved parents. Some studies have evidenced higher rates of post-traumatic stress, worry, guilt, depression, and divorce among individuals who experienced the death of a child. But until recently, the long-term effects on mortality had not been fully explored.
To address this gap in literature, Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, of the Department of Health Promotion’s School of Public Health and a member of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University in Israel, assessed the mortality rates of 1,239 Israeli adults, ranging in age from 75 to 94, twenty years after they had lost a child. The results revealed that among the participants, the bereaved parents were more likely to be single, poorly educated, and depressed than the nonbereaved parents. The findings also showed that a majority of bereaved parents were women, and that mortality rates were higher for the bereaved parents, in particular women, compared to the nonbereaved parents.
Although thorough, the analysis did not fully explore the variables that led to mortality in the bereaved parents. Additionally, the sample, drawn from Israel and North Africa, had high rates of war-related death which may not accurately represent other national samples. Cohen-Mansfield added: “The impact of related educational initiatives, preventative programs, early intervention, individual counseling, couples work, group work, or gender-specific counseling needs to be investigated.” Developing research in these areas would serve to broaden the impact of Cohen-Mansfield’s findings and potentially provide important clinical advances.
Cohen-Mansfield, J., Shmotkin, D., Malkinson, R., Bartur, L., Hazan, H. (2012). Parental bereavement increases mortality in older persons. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0029011
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