6 Emerging Adults 151
providers are often reluctant and avoid the broader health and mental health
context. Farrant and Watson (2003) found a major gap in planning for services
that transition the older teen to adult services; as “early initiation of transition
planning is associated with increased likelihood of success” (p. 178), health
care providers need to address this issue. They urge providers to be open to
the broader health concerns of emerging adults.
Death of an Emerging Adult as Experienced by Others
While emerging adults sometimes die of diseases like cancer (5% of all deaths
of those between 15 and 24) or heart disease (3%), the vast majority of deaths
among emerging adults are due to unintentional injury (most often—47%—
related to motor vehicle accidents), homicide (16%) or suicide (12%) (National
Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], 2010). Notably, for nearly all causes of
death, males are much more likely to die than females, with the unintentional
injury category twice as high, homicide six times as high, and suicide five
times as high (NCHS, 2010). As indicated above, friends are usually from the
same age range and often experience not only grief but life-changing reassess-
ments of identity as a result.
There is strong evidence that about 10% of adolescents consider suicide,
carrying that ideation into emerging adulthood (Rueter, Holm, McGeorge, &
Conger, 2008). Although emerging adults report more suicidal ideation than
older adults, and have fewer religious and moral sanctions protecting them
from suicidal impulses, they are less likely than older adults to successfully
take their lives (Segal, Minic, Coolidge, & O’Riley, 2004). As suicide tends to
leave survivors with some degree of self-blame (www.allianceofhope.org/;
http://www.afsp.org/local-chapters/find-your-local-chapter/afsp-greater-phila-
delphia-chapter/outreach-to-survivors-of-suicide-loss), it is important to be
aware of support services for them, particularly those in this high-risk age
group. Indeed, many claim that the stigma and self-blame of suicide often
disenfranchise parental grief (Doka, 2002). Helping parents reclaim the right
to memorialize and remember emerging adult children who have taken their
own lives has shown promise for assisting parents to express and manage
their grief (Maple, Edwards, Minichiello, & Plummer, 2013).
Parents’ and Others’ Responses to an Emerging Adult’s Death
Most emerging adults’ deaths are sudden. Rando (1993) made a persuasive
case that those bereaved suddenly are at higher risk for complicated grief. In
contrast, Jordan and McIntosh (2011) argue that survivors who learn to “dose”
themselves can better manage their grief. Suicide-survivors must consciously
move toward and away from grief to avoid the perseveration on the death
narrative characteristic in sudden deaths. Yet, research comparing natural
death loss to sudden, unnatural deaths continues to show that those bereaved
after a sudden death are at higher risk for complications of their grief pro-
cess (de Groot, de Keijser, & Neeleman, 2006). This means that grievers after
an emerging adult death are nearly always going to have more challenges in
