Childhood Bereavement: Literature Review

Paper Summary:

This paper penetrates into emotional side of parentally bereaved children, how the tragedies have been affecting them socially, and draws a connection between psychopathology in childhood bereavement and parental death. The functions of preventive intervention groups and the Family Bereavement Program (FBP) are described and evaluated in terms of their efficacy in reducing the children's risk of disturbance. The feelings and behavior of bereaved children can be misinterpreted, and there is possible over-representation in psychopathology of childhood bereavement. Other factors that affect the mental health of bereaved children are also discussed. Furthermore, it gives details on the actions taken by the intervention groups in hopes to modify these factors in order to improve the bereavement process.

From the Paper:

"This Child Bereavement Study focuses on the effects of parental death have on dependent children, and to "gain a clearer picture of the risk for seriously disturbed behavior in them" . This study was performed as 70 families with 125 bereaved children were chosen at the Greater Boston area, with varying family characteristics (e.g. gender and age of surviving parent, family income, type of death etc.). Parentally bereaved children's responses were then compared with the non-bereaved controls in this sample. Using a semi-structured interview, the surviving parents and their children were assessed at: 4 months after the death, one year after the death and the second year after the death. A child was randomly selected from each family and is paired with a non-bereaved child who matched in age, gender, school grade and socioeconomic background. The control children were interviewed at the same time as the bereaved.
The study used three instruments to measure the children's behavior and emotion: The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Perceived Competence Scale for Children, and Locus of Control Scale for Children. Assessment at the first year after the death did not reveal any significant differences between the bereaved and control children. However, by two years, bereaved children scored higher on social withdrawal, anxiety and depression. The data was also examined by age-gender groupings. Adolescent boys and pre-adolescent girls showed no difference from controls at one year, but significant changes appeared in two years. Adolescent girls and pre-adolescent boys did not show differences between the controls at either the first or second year."

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