The death of a family member affects not only individual family members but also their relationships and interactions. Grief has been studied mostly as an intrapersonal experience. Adopting the family perspective, this systematic scoping review focused on parent–child relationships in widowed families so as to identify what is already known on this topic and the research gaps for future study. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Four databases (Web of Science, Psycinfo, PubMed, and CINAHL Plus) were searched. Search terms were combinations of two concepts: (1) loss of a parent (20 terms) and (2) parent–child (eight terms). 5,419 studies were identified during the search, of which 36 studies were included in the review following two rounds of screening. Four research themes emerged, and the aggregated findings were identified: (a) The surviving parent and children are likely to become closer following the loss of a parent, while other relevant factors need to be taken into account; (b) Better parent–child relationships play a protective role in children’s adjustment to loss; (c) The surviving parent and children’s adjustment to loss are interdependent; (d) Through parenting, communication style, coping strategy, and other attributes, the surviving parent can influence their children’s adjustment. Gender and age differences were identified in parent–child relationships. The findings further justify the importance of a family perspective when conducting research and practice on bereavement. Several research gaps were identified. Existing studies paid insufficient attention to children’s agency and bidirectional relationships, and the interaction process and its role underlying parent–child bidirectional causality. A conceptual framework of parent–child relationships in widowed families is proposed based on these findings.

中文翻译：

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丧偶家庭中幸存父母与子女之间的二元关系：系统范围界定审查

家庭成员的去世不仅会影响个人家庭成员，还会影响他们的关系和互动。悲伤主要被研究为一种内在的体验。采用家庭视角，本系统范围界定审查侧重于丧偶家庭中的亲子关系，以确定关于该主题的已知内容以及未来研究的研究差距。审查遵循系统审查的首选报告项目和范围审查的元分析扩展 (PRISMA-ScR) 指南。搜索了四个数据库（Web of Science、Psycinfo、PubMed 和 CINAHL Plus）。搜索词是两个概念的组合：（1）失去父母（20 个词）和（2）亲子（8 个词）。在搜索过程中确定了 5,419 项研究，其中 36 项研究在经过两轮筛选后被纳入评价。出现了四个研究主题，并确定了汇总结果： (a) 幸存的父母和子女可能在失去父母后变得更亲近，同时需要考虑其他相关因素；(b) 更好的亲子关系在儿童适应丧失方面发挥保护作用；(c) 尚存的父母和子女对损失的适应是相互依赖的；(d) 通过养育方式、沟通方式、应对策略和其他属性，幸存的父母可以影响孩子的适应。在亲子关系中发现了性别和年龄差异。研究结果进一步证明了在进行丧亲研究和实践时，家庭观点的重要性。确定了几个研究空白。现有研究对儿童的能动性和双向关系，以及交互过程及其在亲子双向因果关系中的作用关注不足。基于这些发现，提出了丧偶家庭中亲子关系的概念框架。