The death of a parent can cause economic and emotional stress for the surviving family members. As part of a larger survey of widowed men and women, living in Melbourne, Australia, data on needs of children who had experienced a parent's death were collected from 126 widowed parents with at least one child under the age of 18. Parents reported that the impact on the children of a parent's terminal illness varied according to the amount of change in their routines, the extra responsibilities they were assigned, and their comprehension of the situation. Children's reactions to the actual death of a parent varied from shock or withdrawal to openly expressed grief, reactions being largely age-related. The emotional effects on the children of losing a parent extended beyond the first months following the death. Many of them showed signs of insecurity years later and a few showed signs of emotional disturbance, especially those children whose parents had committed suicide. In addition to dealing with grief and bereavement, children faced many economic and social changes: reduction in family income, new caregivers, residence changes, and an increase in responsibilities at home. The data suggested a need for re-evaluation of policy and services for children, to help them deal with bereavement and to help ameliorate the effects of growing up in a single-parent family. (NRB)