This presentation examines how children from racially and socioeconomically marginalized families in the U.S. face various adversities, with a particular focus on an often-overlooked issue—premature parental death. While traditional research has assumed that parental death is too rare to study in national samples, recent crises like COVID-19, the opioid epidemic, gun violence, and deaths of despair have increased mid-life mortality, leading to more children experiencing the loss of a parent. Using data from the Future of the Families and Child Wellbeing study, the talk explores the prevalence and impact of parental death on children’s wellbeing and development, highlighting the need to recognize it as a significant and common childhood adversity.

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