Understanding how grief affects parents and children over time | Natalie O’Brien, MS | $99,600

The Long Arm of Grief: A Longitudinal Study of Mental Health and Support-Seeking Among Bereaved Parents and Children

2025 Award: $99,600

How do families adjust years after the devastating loss of a parent? Special emphasis will be placed on understanding the long-term implications of loss due to suicide. This study follows widowed parents to explore how grief, mental health, and caregiving evolve, while also examining how children’s well-being influences parents’ healing—and vice versa. By uncovering these long-term dynamics, the research aims to inform more effective support for bereaved families.

Need/Problem: Each year, many children lose a parent, and surviving caregivers are left to cope with intense grief while supporting their families. Families bereaved by suicide face even greater challenges, including stigma, isolation, and difficulty accessing support services. Yet there is almost no research tracking how these families adjust in the long term, leaving a gap in knowledge that limits our ability to provide effective care.

Grant Summary: This study will examine how grief, mental health, and parenting change over time among widowed parents and how these factors influence—and are influenced by—their children’s well-being. It includes a nationwide follow-up survey and in-depth interviews with suicide-bereaved parents to explore long-term adjustment and support needs.

Goals & Projected Outcomes: The primary goal of this study is to understand how grief, mental health, and parenting evolve in widowed families over time. The project will examine changes in depression, PTSD, and parenting self-efficacy among surviving caregivers and explore how these patterns relate to children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment. By identifying the social, psychological, and structural factors that either hinder recovery or promote posttraumatic growth, the study will help clarify the long-term needs of bereaved families. It will also assess the accessibility and effectiveness of bereavement services, particularly for families affected by suicide loss, and generate findings to inform future intervention and policy efforts.