![[Adobe Stock]](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_glossy,ret_img,w_750,h_375/https://www.psypost.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/depressed-sad-teen-750x375.jpg)
Young adults who lose a parent to cancer can experience meaningful psychological growth, according to research published in OMEGA – Journal of Death & Dying.
The death of a parent during adolescence or young adulthood is an often deeply disruptive and traumatic experience, occurring at a life stage already marked by major developmental transitions. Prior research has consistently documented elevated risks for anxiety, depression, and long-term psychosocial difficulties following parental loss.
At the same time, trauma researchers have increasingly emphasized that suffering and growth are not mutually exclusive: positive psychological change can occur alongside distress, a phenomenon known as posttraumatic growth.
Tina Lundberg and colleagues followed a group of bereaved adolescents and young adults to understand how posttraumatic growth develops after losing a parent to cancer and how it relates to psychological well-being and social context. The researchers recruited participants from three palliative care services in Sweden, focusing on young people between 16 and 28 who had lost a parent at least two months earlier and were about to begin a professionally led bereavement support group.
While 77 young adults initially joined the broader project, this analysis focuses on the 55 participants who completed both baseline and six-month follow-up assessments, allowing examination of post-loss experiences roughly 14–18 months after the death.
Data were collected using questionnaires administered before participation in the support group and again six months after the group had ended. Posttraumatic growth was assessed using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, capturing positive psychological change across five domains: relating to others, new possibilities, personal strength, spiritual change, and appreciation of life.
The researchers also measured several bereavement outcomes, including participants’ sense that their future life would be meaningful, overall life satisfaction, satisfaction with psychological health, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. This approach allowed examination of whether higher levels of growth were linked to better psychological adjustment rather than simply co-occurring with distress.
The study also included detailed questions about the context of the loss and the participants’ social environment, including how long participants had been aware of the parent’s illness and impending death, as well as the quality of their relationships with both the deceased parent and the surviving parent. Sources of social support were assessed by asking participants with whom they shared their grief and whether they received professional support. These measures enabled exploration of how growth related not only to mental health outcomes but also to relational and situational factors surrounding the loss.
All participants reported posttraumatic growth, with most young adults experiencing growth across multiple domains. The most pronounced changes emerged in appreciation of life, reflecting shifts in priorities and heightened valuing of everyday existence, followed by personal strength, including increased confidence in one’s ability to manage adversity. Growth was least evident in spiritual change, with a subset of participants reporting minimal shifts in this domain.
Higher levels of posttraumatic growth, particularly in personal strength and appreciation of life, were associated with more favorable psychological outcomes. Young adults who reported greater growth also tended to report higher life satisfaction, a stronger sense of meaning in their future, and better psychological health. In contrast, elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms were linked to lower growth. The strongest association emerged between overall life satisfaction and personal strength, underscoring the central role of perceived resilience in post-loss adjustment.
Relational and contextual factors further shaped these patterns. Greater growth was associated with shorter awareness of the parent’s illness or impending death and with poorer relationship quality with either the deceased or surviving parent, suggesting that more destabilizing losses may prompt deeper psychological reorganization.
Social support showed a differentiated effect: sharing grief with siblings or friends, having multiple sources of support, and receiving professional support were generally linked to higher growth. In contrast, having no support or primarily relying on a partner was associated with lower growth in some domains.
Combined, these findings suggest that posttraumatic growth following parental loss is influenced not only by internal coping processes but also by the social contexts in which grief is experienced and shared.
The small, predominantly female sample and the focus on young adults who chose to attend support groups limit generalizability. Further, the observational design precludes causal conclusions between growth and well-being.
The study, “Posttraumatic Growth After Struggling With the Loss of a Parent in Young Adulthood,” was authored by Tina Lundberg, Kristofer Årestedt, Mariann Olsson, Anette Alvariza, and Ulla Forinder.