Abstract: As the number of bereaved parents is on the rise in China, it is worth investigating their social adaptation. Through long-term field interviews and follow-up researches, it is discovered that their adaption dilemma is not only rooted in structural factors and connected with individual agency, but also contains abundant cultural and psychological elements. They are generally suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and somatization disorder, cultural trauma, situational ritual disruption, social role confusion and alienation from acquaintance. On this basis, this paper proposes to adopt casework, group work and community work to help them adjust their self-cognition and social identifications, integrate the internal function building of their self-organizations and improve the service supply capacity of community agencies. All these methods will be utilized to resolve their adaptation dilemma and help them reintegrate into the society.

Key words: bereaved parents, cultural trauma, social adaptation, social work intervention