Children who experience the death of a parent are more likely to see declines in academic performance, according to a new study. File photo by Jesús Rodríguez/Unsplash
April 8 (UPI) — Children who experience the death of at least one parent before age 17 years are less likely to continue their education past high school, an analysis published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.
Young people who lost a parent during their childhood or teen years were 40% more likely than their peers with both parents still living to qualify for college or specialty training after high school, the data showed.
They also were at higher risk for poorer academic performance in primary or secondary school — kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States, the researchers said.
The findings are based on an analysis of school performance and attainment among more than 908,000 children born in Sweden between 1991 and 2000, according to the researchers.
Of the children included in the study, roughly 22,600, or 2.5%, experienced the death of a parent at age 17 years or younger, they said.
“Losing a parent has an impact on the school outcomes of the bereaved children,” study co-author Can Liu told UPI in an email.
“The bereaved children may benefit from additional educational support in school,” said Liu, a researcher in public health sciences at Stockholm University in Sweden.
Previous studies have linked “adversity” and trauma during childhood with an increased risk for mental disability as well as problems in school and other activities.
Recent studies have suggested that these issues have become more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with “hundreds of thousands” of children globally left orphans due to the virus-related deaths of their parents.
In the Swedish study, children who experienced the death of a parent at a younger age appeared to be more impacted, at least in terms of their academic performance, the researchers said.
That many of these children fail to continue their school past secondary levels, or the equivalent of high school in the United States, can have last effects on income and quality of life well into adulthood, according to the researchers.
“The loss of a parent triggers grief, but it also involves a series of changes in the family, such as socioeconomic difficulties, changes in family structure [and] the mental health of the bereaved surviving parent,” Liu said.
“We need more research to understand the association between parental death and school outcomes to better support children at risk for school challenges and reduce their future adverse socioeconomic trajectories,” she said.