Gender Differences in Depressive Symptoms Following Child Death in Later Life.

This article examines psychological adjustment to parental bereavement in later life, focusing on gender differences in depressive symptom trajectories following the death of a child among parents aged 50 and older in the United States. Using nine waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, 1998–2014), the study finds that both mothers and fathers experience an immediate increase in depressive symptoms after child death, which generally returns to prebereavement levels within 2 to 4 years. Mothers are more likely to experience child death, report higher depressive symptoms before bereavement, and show a marginally greater short-term increase but faster recovery in depressive symptoms compared to fathers. Moderation analyses reveal that older parental age slows recovery for mothers and increases short-term depressive symptoms for fathers, while the presence of surviving children buffers mothers' short-term distress but not fathers'. These findings highlight the importance of gender and parental characteristics in shaping psychological responses to child loss in later life and suggest targeted support for vulnerable subgroups, including older parents and mothers without surviving children.