Gender Specific Coping Patterns in Widowed Parents with Dependent Children

Abstract

This article looks at how the gender of the surviving parent affects the coping styles of bereaved family's with dependent children. Interview data from five father- and five mother-headed bereaved families from the MGH/Harvard Child Bereavement Study were subjected to an in-depth analysis. The findings suggest differences in parental coping patterns that seemed to be gender specific. Mothers in this sub-sample tended to adjust their own priorities to their children's needs, recognizing their children's needs for continuity in daily family life. For mothers there was more continuity between their past and their present roles. Family life was more disrupted by the death in father-headed households and fathers' efforts to establish new family routines did not always achieve their goal. Fathers, in this sub-sample, recognized the importance of continuity for their children by the second year after the death. However, they did not always make needed changes in their coping styles to meet these needs. Coping styles that fathers used seemed more parent-centered using an administrative approach to managing the household; mothers were more child-centered and had a more nurturing approach in dealing with their children.