Excess Mortality following Conjugal Bereavement: Does Having Children Buffer the Effects?

Patrick Lusyne, Ghent University
Neelke Vernaillen, Ghent University
Hilary Page, Ghent University
John Lievens, Ghent University

Social support literature identifies adult children as an important source of support. From this it can be expected that widows and widowers lacking the support of adult children are at greater risk of poor bereavement outcome. Young children and adolescents, however, are not considered a primary source of support. Their impact on bereavement outcome is unclear. Surprisingly, the impact of parenthood on survival following widowhood is not systematically assessed. We assess mortality among approximately 180,000 bereaved aged between 30 and 89 and an equal number of matched controls not experiencing widowhood, based on a linkage of the Belgian census of 1991 with the death registration records for the subsequent five-years. Our results indicate that excess mortality is highest among childless men and for childless younger adults. Having children seems to make no difference, however, for women in general, nor for older persons. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed.