Although recent findings generally show that father loss can significantly affect children's self-concepts, no previous research has studied the impact of mother loss on children's self-concepts and evaluations of parents. To provide insight into this question, 1,177 college students evaluated themselves and their mothers and fathers. In contrast to earlier research on father loss which found that evaluations of fathers were enhanced by their demise and diminished by their divorce, the findings indicated that evaluations of mothers dropped drastically in cases when the mother died, particularly for males if their remaining fathers remarried or for females if their remaining fathers did not remarry. In addition, self-concepts of males were significantly higher than those of females, but only if the male students were from intact families and not from any of the alternate family configurations. The results suggest that the area of parent loss may be more complex than originally thought. (Author/JAC)