The Religious and Spiritual Impact of Early Parental Death in Emerging Adults

Millions of youth across the globe have experienced an early parental death. This article included a causal-comparative study ( N = 256) examining a non-clinical group of young adults who experienced a parental death during adolescence and a group of young adults who had not experienced an early parental death. The researchers examined the religious and spiritual impact of early parental death between these two groups according to the years since the death, the gender of the deceased parents, and the age of the loss survivors. When compared to non-bereaved peers, young adults who experienced an early parental death had lower levels of spirituality and higher levels of religious crisis. Implications for the counseling profession are considered.