Bereavement during adolescence : a study of adult women whose fathers or mothers died during their adolescence

The purpose of this study was to examine the responses to and effects of a previous parental death on normal adolescent daughters. The subjects were adult women who experienced the death of either their mother or father during their adolescence. Data were gathered through a structured clinical interview and the administration of the Object Relations Technique. Thirty subjects were studied. Fifteen lost a father, fourteen lost a mother, and one lost both her father and her mother.

The subjects as a group responded to the loss with feelings of grief and sadness. Other frequently reported reactions were shock, anger, and guilt. Subjects tended not to share their feelings and thoughts about the parent's death with anyone else. Subjects tended to feel that they went through the bereavement experience alone with few interpersonal supports. They tended to view the surviving parent as emotionally inaccessible.

Subjects felt that they had to grow up fast at the time of the loss. They felt that they became more mature, responsible, independent, and cynical as a result of the loss. As adults they continued to miss the deceased parent and wished that the parent was still alive to share the subject's adult developmental experiences.

Subjects with disturbed childhoods tended to feel isolated and insecure at the time of the loss. They frequently reported feelings of guilt and depression in the years following the loss. As adults these subjects tended to feel that their lives were filled with emotional turmoil and relationship difficulties. They tended to feel that the bereavement had a permanent negative influence upon their lives. Subjects with normal childhoods tended to view the bereavement as a painful experience that they endured and left behind without any lasting ill effect.

The case studies illustrated how the parental bereavement does not create new personality disturbances but rather reinforces trends already present from early childhood. The subject's personality appeared to mold the nature of the bereavement experience rather than the bereavement experience producing a lasting effect upon the personality structure.