Volunteering improves older parents' mental health after the death of a child
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Date
2023
Authors
Cha, Hyungmin
Thomas, Patricia A.
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Publisher
University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center
Abstract
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Description
About 13% of parents experience the death of their child, a devastating and stressful life event with negative mental health consequences. Few studies, however, have asked whether parents’ mental health eventually returns to the levels they had before losing their child, and if so, how long the healing process takes. Still fewer studies still have examined whether certain activities may lessen recovery time. Hyungmin Cha, former CAPS and PRC graduate student trainee and current postdoctoral fellow at USC’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, and Patricia Thomas, former PRC postdoctoral fellow (2010-2013) and current associate professor of sociology at Purdue University, analyze Health and Retirement Study data to examine of the duration of mental health recovery for bereaved parents. They also measure the impact of volunteering on that recovery. They find that, compared to nonbereaved parents, parents aged 50 and older whose child died between 1998 and 2016 had an immediate increase in depression after child loss and then returned to their pre-bereavement levels after about 7 years. They also found that depression for bereaved parents who started volunteering after their loss returned to their pre-bereavement levels more quickly, in about 4 years. They advocate for policies and programs to encourage volunteering to help older parents recover their mental health more quickly after child loss.
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Citation
Cha, H., & Thomas, P.A. (2023). Volunteering improves older parents' mental health after the death of a child. CAPS Research Brief 2(2).