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Abstract
The loss of an only child is one of the most painful life events and creates tremendous change in its parents’ lives. Analyzing parents’ online language use may help to better understand their loss, especially their psychological process. This study compared the online word use of 228 lost-only-child (LOC) parents to that of their peers. We also tracked the change in word use for a subset of these parents (n = 36) quarterly during the first 2 years following their bereavement. The implications of the word use of Chinese LOC parents for mood, parent–child bond, and lifestyle are then discussed.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Additional information
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [31700984]; China Social Science Fund under Grant [16BRK034]; and National Basic Research Program of China under Grant [2014CB744600].