DEATH OF ADULT CHILDREN IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
The loss of adult children after traffic accidents is relatively common. Bereavement under these circumstances, however, has been little studied. Forty predominantly midlife parents (20 men and 20 women) of predominantly young adult children (27 men and 13 women) who died in traffic accidents were studied 25.6 months after the death. The parents completed the Symptom Checklist 90, the Beck Depression Inventory, and a Bereavement Questionnaire which sought information about the parent, the child, the rest of the family, and the relationship between them. It was found that the parents continued to grieve intensely and had higher then expected levels of psychiatric symptoms as well as increased health complaints. Some parents were more at risk for problems in the bereavement period. Those with unstable families who had ambivalent relationships with their children and whose children were perceived to have had problems at the time of the accident, had more guilt and increased psychiatric symptoms. Parents who had prior bereavement experiences seem to have been protected from higher levels of distress. Additionally, being a mother, losing a daughter, losing children born earlier in the birth order, and losing children in single car, single driver accidents seems to portend a more difficult bereavement. This is an important area for further study.
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Corporate Authors:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
428 East Preston Street
Baltimore, MD United States 21202 -
Authors:
- Shanfield, S B
- Swain, B J
- Publication Date: 1984-9
Media Info
- Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
- Pagination: p. 533-538
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Serial:
- Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
- Volume: 172
- Issue Number: 9
- Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Correlation analysis; Fatalities; Health; Mental disorders; Parents; Single vehicle crashes; Traffic crashes; Young adults
- Old TRIS Terms: Bereavement; Psychiatric abnormalities
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00451740
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Report/Paper Numbers: HS-039 045
- Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
- Created Date: Dec 31 1985 12:00AM