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The aim of this study was to evaluate the sources from which bereaved families with minor children reported receiving social support after the death of a parent/partner and which sources they perceived as important. Using an online platform, 23 adolescents, 42 parents, and 27 parent proxies for children aged 4-11 years, completed questionnaires. Family and friends were valued as the most important sources of social support, while social support from societal institutions, such as health care and school, was considered less important, and insufficient.

This paper explores how bereaved parents with dependent children reasoned about their partner's impending death due to cancer. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 42 cancer-bereaved parents of dependent children in Sweden. The results showed that most of the parents had thought, at least once, that death would be best for their partner's own sake. A few parents had also thought that it would be best for everyone if their partner died. Many parents had a wish to keep up hope, no matter what. However, living with a partner with advanced illness and dependent children was described as extremely stressful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talking and grieving together may be advantageous for maintaining belief in a meaningful future and can help bereaved adolescents and their parents to cope better with the situation. The aim of this study was to explore communication, self-esteem and prolonged grief in adolescent-parent dyads, following the death of a parent to cancer. This study has a descriptive and comparative design. Twenty family dyads consisting of parentally bereaved adolescents (12–19 years) and their widowed parents completed the Parent and Adolescent Communication Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Prolonged Grief-13, 1–4 years following the death of a parent. Twelve family dyads reported normal-high parent-adolescent communication, 11 dyads rated normal-high self-esteem. Two adolescents and three parents scored above the cut-off for possible prolonged grief disorder (≥35), none of these were in the same dyads. There was a difference (p <.05) between boys (mean 40.0) and girls (mean 41.9) with regard to open family communication, as assessed by parents. Girls reported lower self-esteem (mean 26.0) than boys (mean 34.1, p <.01). This study provides insights from parentally bereaved families which indicate that despite experiencing the often-traumatic life event of losing a parent or partner, most participants reported normal parent-adolescent communication, normal self-esteem and few symptoms of prolonged grief. The potential usefulness of identifying families who may need professional support in family communication following the death of a parent is discussed. • Bereaved parent-adolescent dyads reported good communication. • The dyads reported normal to high self-esteem, as well as few symptoms of prolonged grief. • Widowed parents reported more positive open communication with their daughters. • Parentally bereaved girls assessed self-esteem significantly lower than the boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]