Objective: This retrospective cohort study examined the risk for suicide, psychiatric hospitalization, and violent criminal convictions among offspring of parents who died from suicide, accidents, and other causes. Method: Population-based data from multiple Swedish national registers were linked from 1969 to 2004. Participants were 44,397…

People linked through social ties are known to have interdependent health. Our aim was to investigate such collateral health effects in the context of offspring mortality after a parent's death in children aged 10-59 years. The data (N = 3,753,368) were from a linked-registers database that contains the total Swedish population. In minor children,…

Associations between parental loss and high school (HS) completion were examined in data drawn from 1,761 male and 1,689 female offspring born in wedlock to mothers participating in a nationally representative study. Multiple logistic regression models were conducted predicting HS completion by age 19 among offspring whose parents divorced or…

This study investigates whether individual differences in attachment status can be detected by electrophysiological responses to loss-themed pictures. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was used to identify discourse/reasoning lapses during the discussion of loss experiences via death that place speakers in the Unresolved/disorganized AAI…

Higher education does not address the central challenges of daily interpersonal life--being a parent, spouse, friend, and offspring; dealing with change, loss, sickness, death. But education can instill "tacit knowing"--knowing in the bones, prior to conceptualization or verbalization. This knowing can be imparted by great literature. (MLW)

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of sudden parental bereavement on subsequent attainment of developmental competencies. This longitudinal study reports on 126 youth bereaved by sudden parental death (suicide, accident, or natural death) and 116 demographically similar nonbereaved controls assessed at 9, 21, 33, and 62 months after…

To determine familial risk of early suicide, data on cause of death of all Dutch residents aged 20-55 years who died between 1995 and 2001 were linked to data of their parents. Men whose father died by suicide had a higher odds of suicide themselves, relative to men whose father died of other causes (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.5; 95% confidence interval:…

Child and adolescent survivors of parental suicide experience two stressful events simultaneously: (1) the loss of a primary caregiver, and (2) suicidal death of a significant person. These youths are thought to be at increased risk for mental health problems, but a systematic review of studies on these survivors has not yet been conducted. A…

Objectives: This research aimed to identify incidents of mothers in Italy killing their own children and to test an adaptive evolutionary hypothesis to explain their occurrence. Methods: 110 cases of mothers killing 123 of their own offspring from 1976 to 2010 were analyzed. Each case was classified using 13 dichotomic variables. Descriptive…

This exploratory study compares elderly suicides with (n = 13) and without (n = 72) family member suicide. Previous episodes of suicidal behavior were more common among suicides who lost first-degree relatives by suicide (100% vs. 65%, p = 0.009). Six persons had lost an offspring by suicide prior to their own deaths. Substance use disorder was…

Investigated the life satisfaction and death anxiety of elderly women (N=60) as a function of demographic, life history, and stress variables. Through multiple regression, life satisfaction was predicted by number of friends, good health, and, surprisingly, by having fewer offspring living in the same city. (Author)

This article describes three American adolescents in an Israeli residential treatment program. Biographical data, diagnostic categories, projective test responses, relationships with parents, and some examples of dreams are presented. A final section analyzes some underlying concepts: survivor guilt, repressed aggression, and isolation of affect.…

Cross-sectional and repeated surveys from household components of Demographic and Health Surveys in sub-Saharan Africa were examined to determine whether household composition indicators for older adults (N = 52,573), involving offspring and grandchildren, correlated with national levels of AIDS mortality. One in 4 was living with a grandchild…

Continues a study begun in 1973 on attitudes toward death, comparing Israeli and American adolescent offspring of Holocaust survivors in residential treatment program in Jerusalem, Israel. Biographical data, diagnostic classifications, a review of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and some dreams are presented. Israel is shown to be a therapeutic…

Parents who wish their handicapped offspring to be financially provided for after their own deaths need to explore several ways of managing and distributing their assets, including: creating a will; disinheritance (to avoid loss of benefits; joint property and life insurance; and trusts and trustees. (CB)