Educational attainment in offspring bereaved by sudden parental death from external causes: a national cohort study from birth and throughout adulthood

PURPOSE: Previous research has linked loss of a parent during childhood to reduced educational aspirations, school performance, and educational attainment later in life. The potential effect of maternal and paternal bereavement on attainment at all educational levels is, however, unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the potential influence of parental death by external causes on completion of compulsory education, high school, vocational education, and University or College education. METHODS: The study was based on data from three national longitudinal registers in Norway. The study population comprised 373,104 individuals born between January 1st 1970 and December 31st 1994. Information concerning deceased parents’ cause and date of death and offspring’s education and sociodemographic data were retrieved. Data were analysed with Cox regression. RESULTS: Children who had experienced parental death by external causes had a significantly reduced hazard ratio (HR) of completing all educational levels compared to children who did not have such experiences. The largest effects were evident for completion of high school (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.65–0.71) and University or College education (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.70–0.80). No differences were evident for different causes of death, genders of deceased or ages at bereavement, and generally no significant interactions between gender of the bereaved offspring and predictor variables were evident for completion of all educational levels. CONCLUSION: Parental death by external causes has vast and long-lasting impacts on offspring’s educational attainment at all levels. Health care interventions aimed at supporting bereaved children and adolescents should focus on challenges related to educational progress.