Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / AIDS related deaths of parents have resulted in children being orphaned, in large numbers. Adolescence is a particularly vulnerable period in a child’s developmental life.It is a period charactarised by uncertainties, role confusion and identity crises. This stage becomes even more complex when adolescents loose their parents through AIDS. This thesis is an explorative study to understand the experience of adolescent who have lost their parents through HIV/AIDS. This study was theoretically located within a phenomenological framework. The participants were recruited from the foster care project of Ikamva Labantu in Gugulethu. The participants were adolescents aged from 14- 17 years old. They were purposively selected to participate in this study. The study was conducted within a qualitative research design, and underpinned by an interpretative framework. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews with the aid of an interview guide, and observations. This study identified seven themes. Three themes share the experience prior to parental death and the four express the experience after parental death. The research findings led to the conclusion that adolescents struggle with a myriad challenges such as discrimination, stigmatisation, caring for siblings and having to deal with the death of parents often without the necessary support. The conclusions drawn and the recommendations made will contribute to knowledge that will support social workers and other professionals working with AIDS orphaned adolescents, in understanding their experiences.

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Although there is a strong body of existing literature on early parental loss, the majority of research is devoted to examining the consequences of parental death in childhood. Less is known about the long-term impact of this early loss. In particular, there is a lack of understanding about what it is like to live with early parental loss in young adulthood. This hermeneutic phenomenological study addresses the question: What is the young adult’s experience of living with early parental loss? An in-depth exploration into the lived meaning of early parental loss was conducted through open-ended interviews with 8 young men and women (20-30 years old) who lost a mother or father in childhood (between the ages of 9-18 years old). Interview data was coded and analyzed using van Manen’s (2014) hermeneutic phenomenological method, including the process of guided existential inquiry. The fundamental existential themes of lived body, lived time, lived space, and lived other were used as a guide to thematic representation of data. Ten identified themes characterize the essential qualities of this phenomenon: (1) The Grief Experience, (2) The Parentless Identity, (3) Body Awareness, (4) The Transition, (5) The Unexpected Visitor, (6) The New World, (7) The Empty Space, (8) Navigating Relationships in New Ways, (9) Continuing Bonds, and (10) The Relationship With Loss. Through rich experiential descriptions, presented findings demonstrate that the early death of a parent has an ‘ever after’ impact and significantly influences many facets of life in young adulthood. Implications for clinical practice and directions for future research are discussed. / Graduate / 2018-10-02

Det mest dramatiska en tonåring kan uppleva är att en förälder dör.Det finns behov av kunskap om hur personer som upplevt detta anser vara ett gott stöd. Vetenskapliga studier, lagar och handlingsplaner om hur vårdpersonalen ska tillgodo se dessa behov finns redan. Dock vet man ytterst lite om vilka råd tonåringar som kommer att förlora en förälder i cancer skulle vilja ge vårdpersonalen.Beskriva tonåringars behov av stöd och delaktighet i samband med att en förälder blir sjuk och dör i cancer.Uppsatsen är en del av en nationell populationsbaserad studie med tonåringar (13-16 år) som förlorat en förälder i cancer 2000-2003. Data insamling gjordes via enkäter 6-9 år efter föräldraförlusten. Uppsatsen utgår ifrån enkätens sista fråga: Vilka råd skulle du vilja ge den personal som vårdar cancersjuka föräldrar till tonårsbarn? En induktiv innehållsanalys har använts som analysmetod. De unga vuxna beskriver tonåringens behov av att få veta allt om sin förälders sjukdom. De ger vårdpersonalen en mångfald beskrivningar av råd om hur och när information bör ges. Svaren berör även hur vårdpersonalens agerande påverkar mötet med tonåringen. Resultatet i uppsatsen diskuteras bl.a. genom den modell för delaktighet Andershed (1989) utvecklat. Både delaktighet i ljuset och delaktighet i mörkret beskrivs i modellen. Tonåringarna vill veta allt om sin sjuke förälder för att kunna känna delaktighet med sin förälder på ett meningsfullt sätt. Tonåringarnas känsla av delaktighet kan påverkas av hur vårdpersonalen bemöter dem.

The death of a parent represents a potential traumatic life event that has been linked to depression in both Japan and the United States. Yet experiences surrounding death and ways of grieving are framed differently across cultures. At the individual level, the majority of the bereaved people in both Japan and the United States attempt to maintain bonds with the deceased family members. Being complementary to the individual-level desire, Japanese death-related beliefs and practices seem to provide a tool to maintain bonds. In contrast, American death-related beliefs and practices may be at odds with the individual desires by encouraging the bereaved individuals to detach themselves from the deceased parents. Japanese culture may work as a macro level support to bereaved individuals, while American culture is not supportive of the individual desires. Using two national data sets from Japan and the United States, this study tested whether: (1) bereaved individuals report worse mental health than non-bereaved individuals, (2) the mental health consequences of losing a parent is greater in the United States than in Japan, and (3) in this vein, persons in Japan report greater emotional support than those in the United States, and emotional support explains cultural differences in the link between being bereaved and depression. Supporting Hypothesis 1, bereaved respondents were more depressed than non-bereaved respondents. The statistical test rejected Hypothesis 2, and Hypothesis 3 was not testable. This research considers the role of culture as a macro-level support and cross-national research methods.

Previous literature has identified parental death as having a negative impact on the physical and mental health of the surviving adult child. In addition, research suggests that the marital satisfaction of a male or female adult child is negatively impacted after either a father or mother has died. The purpose of this research is to further study this topic by examining longitudinal dyadic data to determine how the death of a parent or death of an in-law impacts marital interaction when certain mediating variables are taken into account. Some of the mediating variables included quality of the parent-child relationship, caregiving, and gender. Data from 98 couples, with an average age of 47, from the USC Longitudinal Study of Generations, were examined using stepwise regression. During the 3 year interval between 1997 and 2000, 45 couples in the sample experienced the death of at least one of their parents. The main finding of the study was that marital satisfaction appears to remain fairly stable following the death of a parent. In other words, there were very few significant changes in positive or negative marital interactions for grieving sons and daughters. However, the few significant results indicated that sons who had a mother die experienced a significant decline in negative interaction with their wife. The death of a spouse's parent also did not impact perceived marital satisfaction in a significant way. Clinical implications are discussed, as well as recommendations for future research.

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The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the relationship of the adolescent experience of parental death to the variables of identity formation, adjustment, and coping. The inclusion of adolescents who had experienced parental divorce and those who had not experienced either loss condition allowed for group comparisons.