Women’s experiences of adolescent maternal loss: grief, attachment and adolescent development

This research explored the experience of six women whose mothers passed away during their adolescence, defined as between the ages of 10 and 25 years, by using an inductive qualitative approach and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). While grief is a complex, individual experience, the findings identify some common experiences amongst this sample. The participants spoke of their ongoing experience of grief, loss and coping across their lifespan which may be explained by disruption to typical neurological development and experiences of complicated grief. Furthermore, bereaved daughters spoke of the ways in which their loss experience affected their intrapersonal development and precipitated ongoing mental health challenges. Bereaved daughters also shared feelings of insecurity in relationships following their loss, and strong bonds that they had formed with other motherless daughters. Practical implications of the findings are presented for the support networks of adolescent motherless women.