Parental death in young adults with divorced compared to non-divorced parents: The effect on prolonged grief and mental health

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey compares the risk of mental health problems like poor well-being, complicated and prolonged grief, and mental disorders between young adults experiencing a divorced or non-divorced parent’s death. 190 participants were recruited from Facebook via the Danish National Center for Grief. Well-being was measured using WHO-5, prolonged grief using PG-13 and complicated grief using BGQ, and common mental disorders using CMDQ. Findings confirmed deleterious effects on mental health in young adults experiencing parental death, but higher risk, when losing a divorced parent compared to a non-divorced parent, was associated to prolonged grief, complicated grief, bodily distress syndrome, and alcohol misuse.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Danish National Center for Grief, who provided access through their Facebook site and to all the participants for their valuable contribution to this study. We are also grateful to University College Lillebaelt that provided the financial support.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.