Social Work Commons^™

“Our Only Child Has Died” – A Study Of Bereaved Older Chinese Parents, Yongqiang Zheng, Thomas R. Lawson, Barbara Anderson Head

Faculty Publications - College of Social Work

Long and complicated grief is a relevant factor contributing to the deterioration of the older adults’ later life quality. In China, the unintentional consequence of the one child policy has emerged. There, the group of older adults who lost their only child is called shiduers. The current study compared 42 older adults who lost their only child to 33 older adults who have a child, in term of their physical and mental health, and social support. The results confirmed the general deteriorating trend in those aspects of the bereaved Chinese parents’ life after their only child’s death. The results also …