Biopsychosocial impacts of mother loss on daughters in Australia: Cross-sectional study.

Abstract

We aimed to describe the biopsychosocial impacts of a mother's death at any stage in life on adult daughters in Australia. A total of 2735 mother-bereaved daughters completed an online survey about their experiences of mother loss and its impacts. We assessed several biopsychosocial outcomes, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prolonged grief disorder (PGD), quality of life (QoL), sleep disturbance, and pain. Using multiple regressions, we examined how mother and daughter's age at the time of death, daughter's levels of maternal and general attachment anxiety and avoidance, daughter's dependence on their mother prior to their death, daughter's provision of personal care to their mother prior to their death, and daughter's expectation of their mother's death were associated with biopsychosocial outcomes. Older, anxiously attached, dependent daughters who provided care and faced unexpected loss experienced poorer outcomes. General attachment anxiety was the strongest and most consistent predictor.