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…
The main objective of this review was to provide a quantitative and methodologically sound evaluation of existing treatments for bereavement and grief reactions in children and adolescents. Two meta-analyses were conducted: 1 on controlled studies…
This study explored the bereavement experience of mothers after losing a child to cancer in Korea, using photovoice. The mothers took photos reflecting five subject areas they selected: (a) if I had one more day with my child, (b) memories with my…
While our understanding of adolescent bereavement has greatly expanded in recent years, one area yet to be clarified is the relationship between grief following a significant loss and spirituality. This article strengthens our understanding of this…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
This study explored parental self-identity at 6, 12, and 18 months following the death of a child to cancer. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative methodology. Two patterns of parental self-identity emerged: identity…
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…
The death of a loved one is a traumatic loss for children, but little attention has been paid to how children's responses vary according to who died--a parent or a sibling. This article reports the findings of a comparison between children's…
The study explores development of the concept of death among 204 Chinese children and adolescents and analyzes the relationships between death concept development and background variables. A coding manual for content analysis of death constructs…
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…
Current models of bereavement care do not address all of bereaved parents' unique needs. Diverse challenges limit parents' ability to access certain bereavement services. A web-based intervention prototype for bereaved parents was developed. Using…
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…
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…
The purpose of the current study was to document the course and 1-month post-bereavement predictors of both positive and negative psychological states in bereaved gay male caregivers for 3 years following the death of their partners. The results show…
This article explores the grief process of parents following the death of a child due to a life-limiting illness, putting particular focus on dyadic coping. Participants included 46 married parents (23 couples). A mixed methods design was used with…
Federal and state government policymakers in Australia are promoting shared decision making in acute care hospitals as a means to improve the quality of end-of-life care. If policy is to be effective, health care professionals who provide hospital…
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 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…
Mindfulness-based interventions have recently been applied to grief-related distress. However, little is known about how bereaved participants experience them. This study explored bereaved parents' experiences of a mindfulness-based grief retreat…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
