The impact of parental death on college-age women

P R Silverman1

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

This is a small sample study of the impact of a parent's death on college-age women. These women report that the death matures them, often putting them out of step with their peers. How they cope is related to the surviving parent's ability to respond to their needs as children. Regardless of the age at the time of the death, they felt unsure about how safe the world was for them, and they needed reassurance that they could count on the surviving parent to take care of them. As they mature, they need to discover what kind of person their deceased parent was and to find a place for the deceased in their adult identity.

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