The Impact of Parental Death in Childhood on Sons' and Daughters' Status Attainment in Young Adulthood in the Netherlands, 1850-1952

Pathways from education and childhood parental death to successful aging: the role of social conditions and perceived income level

OBJECTIVES

Although the association between adverse childhood conditions and health in later life has been relatively well established, little is known about how and through which mechanism this association develops. Building on the developmental adaptation model (Martin & Martin, 2002), the present study investigates the effects of distal and proximal influences on successful aging (SA).

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 475 adults aged 50 and above (Mean age = 72.13, SD = 10.46). SA was measured based on Rowe and Kahn's successful aging criteria model (1997) and an SA operationalization based on a number of multidimensional biopsychosocial indicators, including no disease and disability, active engagement with life, high physical and cognitive functioning, psychological well-being, life satisfaction and a one-item subjective SA question.

RESULTS

Parental death had no direct effect on SA (β = .03, p = .629), whereas education had (β = .39, p < .001). Furthermore, perceived income level and social conditions were identified as two sequential mediators between both education and SA; and parental death and SA.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that both early life and current factors contribute to explaining SA in a variety of ways.

Polarized adult fertility patterns following early parental death

Death of a parent during childhood has become rare in developed countries but remains an important life course event that may have consequences for family formation. This paper describes the link between parental death before age 18 and fertility outcomes in adulthood. Using the large national 2011 French Family Survey (INSEE-INED), we focus on the 1946-66 birth cohorts, for whom we observe entire fertility histories. The sample includes 11,854 respondents who have lost at least one parent before age 18. We find a strong polarization of fertility behaviours among orphaned males, more pronounced for those coming from a disadvantaged background. More often childless, particularly when parental death occurred in adolescence, some seem to retreat from parenthood. But orphaned men and women who do become parents seem to embrace family life, by beginning childbearing earlier and having more children, especially when the deceased parent is of the same sex.

The Effect of Parental Loss on Social Mobility in Early Twentieth-Century Sweden

Parents are assumed to play a crucial role in the socioeconomic attainment of children. Through investments of both time and resources, they promote the ability, human capital, networks, and motivation of their children to advance socially, or at least to maintain their social position. Consequently, losing a parent in childhood could be detrimental to adult socioeconomic outcomes. We use full-count linked census data and a comprehensive death register to study the effect of parental loss on socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood in Sweden during the first half of the twentieth century. We employ sibling fixed-effects models and the Spanish flu as an exogenous mortality shock to assess the importance of endogeneity bias in associations between parental loss and socioeconomic outcomes. Maternal death led to worse socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood in terms of occupational and class attainment, as well as for social mobility. The effects seem to be causal but the magnitudes were small. For paternal death, we find no consistent pattern, and in most models there was no effect on sons' socioeconomic outcomes. The patterns were similar for sons and daughters and do not support the theory that parental loss had important negative effects on socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood.

Self-management experiences of youth following the unexpected loss of a family member to HIV

Background

Death of a close family member is one of the most traumatic events in a person’s life. The way, in which this loss unfolds, varies from person to person and depends on how close you were with the deceased. It was unclear how youths experienced it to manage themselves during different stages of the bereavement process, after losing a near-family member to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Aim

The aim of this study was to understand the self-management of youth following the unexpected loss of a family member to HIV.

Setting

Khayelitsha, Western Cape province, South Africa.

Methods

A descriptive phenomenological design was followed, with an accessible population of youth who lost a family member to HIV. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 purposively selected participants after obtaining written informed consent. The sessions, held with an interview schedule, did not take longer than 45 min to conduct until data saturation was reached. A digital recorder was used and field notes held. Open coding was followed after transcribing interviews.

Results

Individuals had different experiences during different stages of the bereavement process, not necessarily similar or following the same sequence. Individuals had to manage their guilt of being unable to do more before the family member passed away, struggling to realise that they have a future purpose, and hardship having fond memories.

Conclusion

Youth find it difficult to view death as a natural loss of life and to manage themselves after the loss of their loved one to HIV.

Contribution

The context-based information in this study confirms the importance of youth and self-coping and self-continuation to plan, organise and direct their future after the loss of a family member.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between parental death in childhood and subsequent psychiatric disorder

OBJECTIVE

To systematically review evidence for an association between parental death in childhood, and the subsequent development of an anxiety, affective or psychotic disorder.

METHODS

Electronic databases (Scopus, Medline (for Ovid), EMBASE and PsychINFO) were searched for peer-reviewed, cohort studies in the English language. Meta-analyses were performed for studies reporting hazard ratios, incidence rate ratios and odds ratios. Two studies reported risk ratios, and these were included in an overall pool of odds, risk and incidence rate ratios. Sensitivity analyses were performed (removal of one study at a time) for all meta-analyses, and study quality assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.

RESULTS

Fifteen studies were retained, and where required, data were averaged in advance of pooling. Significant results were observed in studies reporting hazard ratios (k = 4, 1.48 [95% CI = 1.32-1.66]), incidence rate ratios (k = 3, 1.37 [95% CI = 1.01-1.85]), but not odds ratios (k = 4, 0.87 [95% CI = 0.72, 1.05]). However, the overall pooled effect (using odds, incidence rate and risk ratios) was statistically significant (k = 9, 1.22 [95% CI = 1.03-1.44]).

CONCLUSION

Overall, the evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the death of a parent before age 18, and the subsequent development of an anxiety, affective or psychotic disorder. The lack of a significant pooled effect in studies reporting results as odds ratios is likely an artefact of study design.

LIMITATIONS

Data were clustered in four countries making generalizability uncertain. Studies adjusted for a variety of possible confounders, and follow-up after death varied considerably.

Maternal death and offspring fitness in multiple wild primates

Primate offspring often depend on their mothers well beyond the age of weaning, and offspring that experience maternal death in early life can suffer substantial reductions in fitness across the life span. Here, we leverage data from eight wild primate populations (seven species) to examine two underappreciated pathways linking early maternal death and offspring fitness that are distinct from direct effects of orphaning on offspring survival. First, we show that, for five of the seven species, offspring face reduced survival during the years immediately preceding maternal death, while the mother is still alive. Second, we identify an intergenerational effect of early maternal loss in three species (muriquis, baboons, and blue monkeys), such that early maternal death experienced in one generation leads to reduced offspring survival in the next. Our results have important implications for the evolution of slow life histories in primates, as they suggest that maternal condition and survival are more important for offspring fitness than previously realized.

Early parental death and psychosocial risk factors for dementia: A case-control study in Europe

OBJECTIVES

To assess the association between early parental death and the risk of dementia in adult life and to examine the risk factors associated with early parental death in people with and without dementia.

METHODS/DESIGN

A population-based case-control study of a sample of 65 997 participants from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe study. Early parental death was operationalized as parental death at the age of ≤16 years. Main analyses were conducted using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

The odds ratio (OR) for dementia in individuals who experienced early parental death (father or mother) at the age of ≤16 years was 1.83 (95%CI 1.61-2.09) and 1.54 (95%CI 1.35-1.76) adjusted for age, gender and education. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis carried out with the whole sample, early parental death increased the risk of dementia (OR = 1.50, 95%CI 1.31-1.72), along with older age (OR = 5.92, 95%CI 4.86-7.17), neuroticism (OR = 2.94, 95%CI 2.61-3.31), low education level (OR = 1.84, 95%CI 1.64-2.05) and low income (OR = 1.49, 95%CI 1.34-1.67).

DISCUSSION

Early parental death (≤16 years) was associated with an increased risk of dementia. We discuss the neurobiological markers associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and dementia as well as interventions to counteract the negative health effects on adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:-, 2020.

Law and mental health: A bridge between individual neurobiology and the collective organization of behaviors

Mental disorders (MD) or mental symptoms (MS) have multifactorial causes. Today we know much more about the variables that cause individual MD\MS, but in our opinion these characterizations, although essential, are not sufficient to account for the complexity in which we live. For example, they do not explain in a coherent and empirically verifiable way how the biological individual relates to the social architecture in which he lives. This article presents a hypothesis that connects social and organizational structures to the emergence of symptoms and mental disorders in the population. It is our belief that some of these structures fundamentally impact the distribution of MD/MS in a population and the medical and psychological communities must consider this impact seriously. Laws aim at directing the behavior of groups of people, whose behavior is strictly interdependent with their neurobiology. Given the ability of laws to direct the behaviors that regulate social interactions, traumatic factors may be considered capable of linking a non-material object (e.g., a law) to a real effect (e.g., MS/MD). We discuss, as a paradigmatic example, the laws that regulate the use of psychotropic substances.