The loss of an only child is one of the most painful life events and creates tremendous change in its parents' lives. Analyzing parents' online language use may help to better understand their loss, especially their psychological process. This study…
Drawing on national, longitudinal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data (2005-2015), demographic, health, foster care, and geographic characteristics of decedents (N = 3,653) aged 1-17 years were examined. On average, decedents…
This follow-up study examined how bereaved couples' grief reactions change over time and how the quality of the marriage can predict these reactions for men and women. A group of 31 bereaved couples who 2 to 4 years earlier had lost an infant (…
The article is a response to the contributions the special issue of Death Studies on continuing bonds. The contributions indicate that the conversation among scholars has clarified our thinking on how bonds function in individual grief. The author…
A core dynamic by which grief is resolved by parents in Bereaved Parents, a self-help group, is a series of transformations of the inner representation of the dead child in the parent's inner world and in the parent's social world. As the reality of…
The aim was to study mothers' experiences of online peer support groups after the death of a child. Participants (N = 8) were recruited through a newsletter for the Swedish association for families/children with heart defects, and two closed support…
To understand more about final conversations (communication between loved ones from the point of terminal diagnosis until death), 49 children/adolescents provided final conversation advice for other youth and for the dying person. Advice for fellow…
Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement. Childhood pet bereavement is no less…
Multiple losses within short time periods make one question life and can exponentially influence one's coping skills. But what are the effects on a child and what should be done when the next loss occurs? This case addresses the multiple losses…
Open and honest communication has been identified as an important factor in providing good palliative care. However, there is no easy solution to if, when, and how parents and a dying child should communicate about death. This article reports how…
Open and honest communication has been identified as an important factor in providing good palliative care. However, there is no easy solution to if, when and how parents and a dying child should communicate about death. This paper reports how…
The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement recognizes the wide variation of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours pertaining to childhood death, dying, and bereavement. The purpose of this statement is, therefore, to identify a set of…
This study proposes a method for calculating the annual incidence rate of sibling bereavement among US youth using national epidemiological data. The proposed model combines data on family household size with national death statistics to calculate…
The belief that loss can result in growth has been hypothesized for centuries.Yet, traditional grief theories have viewed grief work as a process of resolving grief and returning to normal. Formal conceptualizations of grief to growth models have…
The purpose of this article is to provide data on a recently developed instrument to measure the multidimensional nature of the bereavement process. In contrast to widely used grief instruments that have been developed using rational methods of…
While bereavement camps serve as a support for children, this study examines a therapeutic recreation-based camp for families who have lost a child. The study triangulated documents, researcher reflection and staff interviews to highlight the themes…
Pathfinders is a 10-session program developed in a community setting to creatively address the diverse needs of bereaved children and families, prevent complications of grief and trauma, and promote healthy adaptation. It is an accessible,…
The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of bereaved parents in Greece (N = 56) regarding the provision of hospital based bereavement services after the death of their child to cancer. The participants did not receive formal or informal…
To contribute to a better understanding of the utility of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90R; L. Derogatis, 1983) with bereaved samples, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on SCL-90R responses of 97 parents 2 years after the death of…
Through a focus on one child's extended stay in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, I raise four general questions about pediatric medicine: How should physicians communicate with parents of very sick children? How should physicians involve parents of…
This article explores the concepts of narrative as story, of storytelling, and of the narrative approach to qualitative research. Within this, I will also examine the social nature of narrative and the implications of this for research. I will look…
Sibling relationships reflect a unique childhood bond, thus the impact on a sibling when a child is seriously ill or dying is profound. We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, qualitative study over 2 years using interpretive descriptive…
This article compares the outcome and predictors of psychosocial distress of parents bereaved by young suicides, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and child accidents. One objective is to explore whether suicide bereavement is more difficult for…
To understand the lived experience of parents who have lost their child to a chronic life-limiting condition, six major databases were searched by adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Articles…
This mixed method study explored parent and child characteristics that impact grief and personal growth in parents (n = 119) after a child dies from cancer in Australia. Medical components of a child's cancer care including radiation treatment,…
Developmental changes in children's acquisition of death concepts and in their emotional reactions are reviewed. Moderating variables that may affect the nature of grieving processes after parental or sibling death are discussed, including…
Following an unexpected pediatric death, survivors undergo unique trauma. Medical examiners (MEs) evaluate most of these deaths. We evaluated the bereavement support available to survivors in the Chicagoland area following a pediatric death. We had…
Bereaved parents have higher morbidity and mortality rates when compared to non-bereaved parents. While parental grief is well studied, the complexities of challenges bereaved parents face are not understood. This study describes parental bereavement…
Three assumptions guiding research and clinical intervention strategies for people coping with sudden, traumatic loss are that (a) people confronting such losses inevitably search for meaning, (b) over time most are able to find meaning and put the…
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every…
Canuck Place, North America's first free-standing pediatric hospice of its kind, opened in 1995 in British Columbia, Canada. The province-wide program encompasses a broad spectrum of services intended to support community-based care and provide…
The death of an infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a profound and unexpected loss for parents that results in a complex process of coping with bereavement. A descriptive qualitative approach was used to explore parent bereavement…
Few studies have fully explored the problem of communication barriers in pediatric palliative care, particularly the detrimental effects of poor interaction between staff and families on children's health and well-being. A literature review was…
This study aims to examine perceived challenges, including knowledge, skills, self, and work environment, of professionals in providing pediatric palliative care (PPC) in Hong Kong and the differences in perceived challenges between groups. A total…
This paper reports on a study that examined the grief and coping of 29 parents whose child has hypoplastic left heart syndrome using the Dual Process Model. The study employed a secondary thematic analysis of interviews at key times of treatment and…
Grounded theory analysis was used to generate an explanation of the phenomenon of meaning reconstruction in the experience of 10 bereaved mothers. The theory that emerged included three phases in the process of meaning reconstruction: discontinuity,…
