Adulthood and Death

Death is an integral part of life throughout adulthood. Psychologist Carl Jung proposed that adult development is characterized by a process whereby one moves from the omnipotence and immortality [Page 17]of young adulthood to the confrontation of physical aging and loss of loved ones characteristic of middle and late adulthood. The leading causes of death, as well as the most common types of losses experienced, are defining features of each stage of adulthood.

Young Adulthood

Death of a Child

The literature describes the death of a child as the most difficult and painful death to grieve because it violates all assumptions about the natural order of life and death; namely, that parents should not outlive their children. When a child dies, a parent loses not only their child but also their hopes and dreams for the future and often their sense of a just world. Starting a family is one of the primary developmental tasks of young adults, and even though the average age at which women bear children has increased over the past 3 decades in the United States, most babies are born to young adults. Accordingly, most early childhood deaths affect young parents at a time they are most invulnerable and have had little experience coping with death, particularly one judged to be so untimely and unfair.

Prenatal Death

Of the approximately 6 million pregnancies that occur each year in the United States, 2 million end in pregnancy loss as a result of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancies, molar pregnancies, stillbirth, and abortion. Although the medical recovery from the loss of a pregnancy is usually rapid and uneventful, the psychological effects can be traumatic. Unfortunately, the death of a preterm baby is often minimized and not adequately validated as a significant and profound loss.

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