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Midlife loss of parents: The transition from adult child to orphan

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Abstract

Few studies have explored the transition faced by midlife adults on the death of a parent. Even fewer have explored the differences between first and second parent loss. This paper draws on in-depth interview data from a small sample conducted as part of a small-scale research project. A phenomenon of a two-staged life transition period was unexpectedly observed which suggests adult children may grieve for their first parent’s death in a filtered way through their concern for the grief of the remaining parent; and then, on the death of the second parent, grieve wholly for both parents. Previous research does not distinguish the social complexities of grief between first loss and second loss; or consider how this temporally spaced event is a two-phased life transition from role as a son/daughter to parentless ‘orphan’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG), the University of Surrey, UK

    Helen Marshall (research fellow)

Authors
  1. Helen Marshall
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Correspondence to Helen Marshall.

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Her research interests are the sociology of death, dying and bereavement, food, health and life course transitions.

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Marshall, H. Midlife loss of parents: The transition from adult child to orphan. Ageing Int. 29, 351–367 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-004-1004-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-004-1004-5

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