Adults view their childhood bereavement experiences.

This study sought to determine if depression is an inevitable outcome of childhood bereavement experiences, as the Freudians believed, or if children can experience healthy mourning, as Bowlby predicted. In an application of Q methodology, 43 adults parentally bereaved as children sorted statements about childhood bereavement experiences and outcomes in adulthood. Debriefing interviews followed. Four distinct types of experience emerged through factor analysis: appreciation, frustration, enmeshment, and ambivalence. Depression was not found to be an inevitable outcome, and Bowlby's prediction that certain positive family factors can influence a child toward healthy mourning during childhood were corroborated. Salient factors contributing to healthy childhood mourning included positive relationships between the child and both parents, ample emotional and psychological support from the surviving parent, and open and honest communication with the child about the death and its impact on the family.