Understanding Bereavement

Open research on bereavement, gathered with care

Research · for Student welfare & young adults' organisations

Bereaved Students and Young Adults: Grief, Mental Health and University Support

Published 2026-10-16

Bereavement is an ordinary part of student life: in one randomly drawn sample of US undergraduates, three in ten had had a family member or friend die in the previous year. Most grieve without developing a mental illness, but a sizeable minority have intense, lasting grief, and large health-record studies link a parent's death in young adulthood to more diagnosed mental illness. In the UK and Ireland, the one region reviewed so far, support built for grieving students is often hard to find.

The years between 18 and 25 are when many people leave home, start a course or a first job, and build new friendships far from family. A death during these years can arrive in the middle of exams, a move or a first tenancy, among peers who may not yet have been bereaved themselves and staff who may not know. The evidence on how young adults fare comes from three very different kinds of study: surveys of students at particular universities, national cohort studies, and population health registers. This study brings them together, says which country each figure comes from, and is plain about where the evidence is thin.

30%of a randomly selected sample of 118 undergraduates at one private US university had had a family member or friend die within the previous 12 months, and 39% within 24 months[1]
14.15out of 30: the average “bereavement friendly” score for UK and Ireland universities, from a 2024–25 review of the support their public websites describe[2]
2.78×the hazard of a depressive disorder diagnosis among young adults in Taiwan whose parent died when they were 18–29, compared with matched young adults whose parents were alive[3]

At any one time, many students are recently bereaved, and deaths are not shared equally

We found no country that publishes an official count of how many students or young adults are bereaved each year. The best direct estimate comes from a US study that drew students at random rather than relying on volunteers: at one private Midwestern university, 30% of 118 undergraduates had had a family member or friend die within the past 12 months, and 39% within 24 months[1]. The authors note that earlier studies using convenience samples had put the figure at 22% to 30% within 12 months[1]. These are small, single-institution samples that count the death of any family member or friend, not only a parent, but they make the point that grief is present in almost every lecture room. A 2025 review of UK and Ireland universities describes bereavement as “one of the most frequently reported stressors for university students”[2].

Some young people arrive at university already bereaved of a parent. In a nationally representative Australian survey of households with children in 2013–14, 2.5% of 17-year-olds had had a biological parent die[4]. In the United States, the Add Health cohort, which has followed a nationally representative group of adolescents since 1994–95, shows how unequal this is: 11.7% of white participants had had a parent or sibling die in their first 23 years, against 24.3% of Black and 30.3% of Native American participants[5]. The authors link the gap to structural racism and earlier deaths in those communities[5]. Any service planning for bereaved students needs to start from the fact that early bereavement is not spread evenly: it falls hardest on communities that already face the most barriers.

Share of young people in the United States who had a parent or sibling die by age 23, by race and ethnicityUS Add Health cohort, adolescents in grades 7-12 in 1994-95 followed into adulthood. Parent or sibling death in the first 23 years of life: white 11.7%, Asian 12.5%, Hispanic 15.0%, Black 24.3%, Native American 30.3%.0%10%20%30%40%Native American30.3%Black24.3%Hispanic15.0%Asian12.5%White11.7%
Nationally representative US cohort of adolescents first surveyed in 1994–95 (N = 14,796 in this analysis). The authors link the gaps to structural racism and earlier deaths in Black and Native American communities. Source: Thyden et al., Social Science & Medicine 2023.

Most grief is not a disorder, but a sizeable minority report intense, lasting grief

Grief is a normal response to a death, and most bereaved young adults do not go on to develop a mental illness. Prolonged grief disorder, now recognised in the ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR diagnostic systems, describes something different: intense yearning or preoccupation that persists well beyond what is usual and gets in the way of daily life. Surveys of bereaved students in several countries suggest that a minority screen positive for it, though the share depends heavily on how and whom the study asked.

  • In mainland China, 14.2% of 424 students whose significant loss was more than 12 months earlier were at high risk of prolonged grief disorder[6].
  • In Tehran, Iran, where 901 bereaved students were chosen by stratified random sampling, 10.9% had prolonged grief symptoms[7].
  • In an online survey of 130 bereaved Australian university students, 30.4% had potential prolonged grief[8].
  • Among 157 US young adults aged 17 to 29 bereaved of a family member or close friend in the past three years, 16% met criteria for complicated grief and 34% had mild to severe depression[9].

In the randomly drawn US sample described above, the figure was much lower: two students, 1.7% of the whole sample, were classified as having prolonged grief disorder[1]. A 2026 meta-analysis of young people aged 25 or under whose parent or sibling died of cancer pooled a self-reported prevalence of prolonged grief-related symptoms of 48%: 28% after a parent's death and 59% after a sibling's[10]. The authors stress that no included study used diagnostic interviews, so these are symptom levels, not diagnoses[10].

The circumstances of a death matter. In a Chinese study grouping bereaved students by their symptoms, an unexpected loss or having had no chance to say goodbye made it more likely that a student belonged to the group with the highest symptoms[11]. Several studies also find that how close a student was to the person who died is a key predictor of grief severity and of academic difficulty[8][12].

Share of bereaved students and young adults screening positive for prolonged or complicated grief, by studyFour separate surveys, each using its own measure and threshold. Australia, 130 bereaved university students: 30.4% potential prolonged grief. United States, 157 bereaved young adults aged 17-29: 16% met criteria for complicated grief. China, 424 students bereaved more than 12 months earlier: 14.2% at high risk of prolonged grief disorder. Iran, 901 bereaved students in Tehran: 10.9% with prolonged grief symptoms.0%10%20%30%40%Australia, universitystudents (n=130)30.4%US, young adults 17–29(n=157)16%China, university students(n=424)14.2%Iran, university students(n=901)10.9%
Each bar is a different study with its own questionnaire, threshold and time since the death, so the bars are not directly comparable and none is a clinical diagnosis. Only the Iranian sample was drawn by stratified random sampling; the Australian and Chinese studies were online surveys. Sources: Hay et al., Omega 2025; Mash et al., J Nerv Ment Dis 2014; Jiang et al., Death Studies 2026; Ashouri et al., Omega 2025.

Health records link a parent's death in young adulthood to more diagnosed mental illness

Student surveys rely on volunteers. Population health records avoid that problem, and the largest study to look specifically at young adults comes from Taiwan. Using national health insurance data, researchers compared 202,837 people whose parent had died with 2,028,370 demographically matched people whose parents were alive[3]. Those bereaved at 18–29 had 5.63 times the hazard of a schizophrenia diagnosis, 3.37 times the hazard of bipolar disorder and 2.78 times the hazard of depressive disorder[3]. The risk was similar whether a mother or a father had died[3]. The study adjusted for demographics only, so some of the excess will reflect what families share, such as inherited vulnerability and hardship, rather than the death itself.

In Sweden, a nationwide register study of 349,168 bereaved people found 1.42 times the hazard of a first recorded mental illness after the death of a partner, child, parent or sibling before the COVID-19 pandemic, and reported that the hazard ratio “was highest among the youngest individuals and generally attenuated with increased age”[13]. Not every study finds a difference. At one Japanese university, students whose parent had died reported no more psychological distress than other students, though only 42 bereaved students took part[14]. And in the US Add Health cohort, a parent's death in young adulthood was linked to psychological distress in early midlife among white participants, but not among Black and Hispanic participants; support from others accounted for about 16% to 20% of the association[15].

Risk of a first diagnosis of major mental illness after a parent's death at age 18-29, TaiwanTaiwan national health insurance data. Young adults whose parent had died, compared with demographically matched young adults whose parents were alive. Hazard ratios: schizophrenia 5.63, bipolar disorder 3.37, depressive disorder 2.78.0123456Schizophrenia5.63 timesBipolar disorder3.37 timesDepressive disorder2.78 times
Hazard ratios compared with matched young adults whose parents were alive, adjusted for demographics only. A ratio of 1 would mean no difference. These are relative risks of a recorded diagnosis, not the share of bereaved young adults who are diagnosed; most are not. Source: Li et al., Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2022.

Young adults are also bereaved by the sudden deaths of friends and relatives, including deaths by suicide. A UK-wide survey of staff and students aged 18–40 at 37 higher education institutions compared 3,432 people bereaved suddenly after the age of 10[16]. Those bereaved by suicide had 1.65 times the odds of a suicide attempt of those bereaved by sudden natural causes, whether or not they were blood relatives of the person who died[16]. When perceived stigma was taken into account, the difference was no longer statistically significant (adjusted odds ratio 1.11), which suggests stigma may be part of the pathway and is something services can address[16]. In Denmark, register data show that people whose parent died by suicide had about twice the rate of self-harm or suicide in the period around reaching the age their parent had been, compared with the years either side[17]. Most people bereaved by suicide do not go on to harm themselves. Help is available, and anniversaries and milestones are points where support can be offered in advance.

If you need support right now In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans are free to call on 116 123, day or night. Children and young people in the UK can call Childline free on 0800 1111. Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential helplines by country. If a life is at immediate risk, call 999 or your local emergency number.

Alcohol is part of the picture for some. In a related UK survey of 1,854 young adults at higher education institutions who had been bereaved suddenly, 33% said they had increased their alcohol use at some point after the death and 12% their use of drugs, while most reported no increase (58% for alcohol, 85% for unprescribed drugs)[18]. A US study of 659 young adults found higher recent alcohol use among those bereaved by a sudden violent death than among those bereaved by a sudden natural death or not bereaved[19].

Studies are disrupted, and the effects can follow young people into degrees and work

Grief takes concentration, sleep and energy, and courses rarely pause for it. In the Australian survey of 130 bereaved university students, nearly half said their academic experiences were worse after the death; the worse those experiences, the more strongly grief was tied to lower wellbeing[8]. A US study of 950 students at two universities found that closeness to the person who died predicted both mental health and academic difficulties[12].

Longer-term data come from cohorts and registers, mostly about deaths earlier in life. In the US Add Health cohort, young people who had a parent or sibling die had 0.60 times the odds of gaining a bachelor's degree, in adjusted models; the effect was strongest for deaths at ages 10–13 and did not differ by sex or race[5]. In Norway, a study of everyone born in 1977–87 (574,229 people) followed those whose parent died before 18 into their twenties: at ages 22–29 they spent more years not in education, employment or training, with the authors’ “incidence risk ratios” for years spent in this position ranging from 1.19 when the parent died of cancer to 2.36 for drug-related deaths[20]. The researchers' comparison of causes of death suggests that part of the gap reflects family circumstances that were present before the death[20]. School-age effects are covered in our study of school grades after a parent dies.

What protects students is mostly other people. In a US study of 225 bereaved and non-bereaved students, support from friends was linked to better academic and social adjustment and a stronger attachment to the university, and bereaved students with little family support had lower social adjustment and attachment[21].

University support for grief is often hard to find

We found no international data on what bereavement support universities offer. The most systematic look so far comes from the UK and Ireland, where researchers searched the public websites of every university in 2024–25 for ten kinds of bereavement-related support and gave each institution a score out of 30[2]. The average was 14.15, and the authors describe the visibility of bereavement support information as “generally poor”[2]. Universities with higher scores tended to have higher external quality ratings and lower rates of students not continuing their studies; that is a correlation, not proof that better support keeps students enrolled[2].

The Australian researchers concluded that “generic well-being supports are likely to be inadequate” for grieving students and that universities should include grief-specific resources[8]. Students bereaved by suicide face particular stigma, discussed further in our study of adults bereaved by suicide.

What the evidence asks of us

The figures point to a few practical steps for universities, colleges, employers of young people and the organisations that support them. None of them requires treating grief as an illness.

  • Make support easy to find. The UK and Ireland review found bereavement information on university websites generally hard to find[2]. Clear, public pages on what a bereaved student can ask for, from deadline extensions to leave of absence and counselling, cost little.
  • Offer grief-specific help, not only general wellbeing services. Australian researchers concluded that generic wellbeing support is likely to be inadequate for grieving students[8].
  • Plan for sudden and stigmatised deaths. In the UK survey of young adults, the higher odds of a suicide attempt after a suicide bereavement were no longer significant once perceived stigma was accounted for[16]. Responses after the suicide of a student or a student's relative or friend should reach friends as well as family.
  • Think about timing. Danish evidence that risk rises around reaching the age a parent died by suicide suggests support should be offered ahead of known milestones, not only in the weeks after a death[17].
  • Strengthen peer and family support. Friends' support was linked to better adjustment among students[21], and social support accounted for part of the longer-term link between a parent's death and distress in the US cohort[15].
  • Collect better data. No country routinely records bereavement among students, and almost all student studies are single-institution or volunteer surveys. Including a bereavement question in national student and youth surveys would let universities and funders see the scale of need.

Language: this piece uses plain words such as “died” rather than euphemisms, because they are clearer. Where it discusses suicide, it follows the Samaritans’ and WHO’s media guidelines.

Why we're publishing this

Young adults are often assumed to be resilient, and bereavement in early adulthood falls between children's services and adult ones. Many students grieve away from home, in institutions that were not designed with grief in mind. Student welfare teams, students' unions and young adults' organisations already know this from their work; this study gathers the published evidence from several countries so they can make the case for support that fits, with sources they can check and cite.

How to read this data

The evidence here is of three kinds. Student surveys (the US, Australia, China, Iran, Japan and the UK) are mostly convenience or online samples from one or a few institutions; only the Balk and Ashouri studies drew participants at random, and the UK survey had a low response rate and probably over-represents women and the more highly educated[16]. Their prolonged grief figures use different questionnaires and thresholds and are screening results, not diagnoses, so they should not be compared directly or treated as a trend. Cohort studies (US Add Health) follow nationally representative groups over time. Population registers and health insurance records (Taiwan, Sweden, Norway, Denmark) cover whole populations and record diagnoses, but adjust only for the factors in the records; they show associations, not proof that the death caused the outcome. Most of the strongest evidence comes from East Asia, Scandinavia and the US. We found no comparable data for most of Africa, South Asia or Latin America, and no national count, anywhere, of how many students are bereaved each year.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Bereavement. Charities, universities, students' unions, services and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.

Suggested citation: Understanding Bereavement (2026). Bereaved Students and Young Adults: Grief, Mental Health and University Support. https://understandingbereavement.org/research/young-adults-students-bereavement

Important: This study summarises published research about groups of people for general information. It is not medical advice or bereavement support, and it cannot describe or predict anything about an individual student or family. If you are worried about yourself or someone else, please speak to a GP or another qualified professional.

Sources

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