This thesis explores associations that could have an impact on the experience of a parental death in childhood. It suggests a methodology for establishing the prevalence of parental bereavement that helps the author to explore quantitatively any associated links between parental death in childhood and delinquency rates in 16-year-olds. As well as helping to establish the prevalence of parental death in childhood, the methodology also enables the author to explore possible contributing factors that could increase a child's vulnerability to the experience of parental death such as social class, age and gender of child and dead parent these are presented as a set of risk variables in which the data shows an increase in a parentally bereaved child's susceptibility to delinquent behaviour. It also compares themes within essays written by parentally bereaved children and none parentally bereaved children. The exploration used the Thematic Apparition Test coding as a framework from which to identify differences in the stories told about the future by each comparison group.