The general aim of the proposed research is to examine the impact of elderly parent's deaths on the lives of their middle-aged children. The experience of parental death in middle age is increasingly normative but has received minimal attention. In particular, we will examine the effects on middle aged married women of the loss of an elderly mother who is their last surviving parent. The central focus will be on the personal meaning of the death and the interpretation of this even over the 15 months following it. Interviews will be held at 3 and 15 months post- death. The proposed study has 3 specific aims; 1. To examine change and continuity in the personal meaning of the death, employing a mix of (mostly) qualitative and quantitative methods. 2. To examine differential effects on middle aged children distinctive circumstances prior to the death. Four groups of informants (25 each, N=100) will consist of local middle aged daughters who 1: were involved in heavy caregiving for their mother, (2) were involved in light or no caregiving; (3) had a mother in a nursing home most of the last year of her life; or (4) lived out of town and were therefore not instrumental caregivers. For each, the quality of the parent-child tie will be of central interest. 3. To examine the death both as a loss and as a life course transition. We will examine the extension of 7 adult child-parent themes (generational continuity, interaction, reciprocal socialization, interdependence, duty, affect, and personal adjustment to the death) beyond the death. The notion of anticipatory orphanhood is also of significance. The proposed research may also be considered a """"""""post-caregiving"""""""" study for a subsample of informants. Little is known about the mental health effects of this loss. The proposed study will provide a first and in-dept look at these.
