Influence Of Sex Of Parent, Timing Of Loss And Age Of Child On Unresolved Grief Among Bereaved Parents
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL
Influence Of Sex Of Parent, Timing Of Loss And Age Of Child On Unresolved Grief Among Bereaved Parents
INTRODUCTION
It is unclear how many young individuals are affected by the death of a close family member. Kliman believes that 5% of children in the United States, or 1.5 million, have lost one or both parents by the age of 15; others believe the figure is far greater in lower socioeconomic categories.
This chapter examines the types of bereavements that are thought to have the most devastating medical, psychological, and behavioural consequences on children, notably the death of a parent or sibling.
Because most of the literature in this topic deals with parental loss rather than sibling loss, and because many of the emotions to both types of grieving overlap, the majority of the discussion is centred on studies of parental death.Bereaved Parents
Individuals continue to grow and develop throughout their lives, but no other era of development is more likely to affect individual reactions than childhood and adolescence.
Because the impact of trauma on children is greatly influenced by the stage of life at which the event happens, this chapter places a special emphasis on developmental analysis.
This viewpoint assumes that the consequences and meanings of big object loss will be influenced by the child’s stage of development. Psychiatrists and others have been struck by how frequently severe childhood bereavement appears to result in psychopathology.
Childhood bereavement is frequently found in studies of adults with various mental disorders, particularly depression, implying that such loss may precipitate or contribute to the development of a variety of psychiatric disorders, and that this experience can make a person emotionally vulnerable for the rest of their life. Children’s special vulnerability is due to developmental immaturity and poorly developed coping capacities.Bereaved Parents
The desire to impose adult models on children has resulted in widespread confusion and misunderstanding regarding how youngsters grieve. Although they have certain parallels with adults and even monkeys, children’s reactions to loss are not identical, either in terms of specific manifestations or endurance.Bereaved Parents
For example, what appears glib and unemotional in a tiny child—such as informing every visitor or stranger on the street, “my sister died”—is the child’s approach of seeking support and gauging how others should feel. Children may be spotted playing games that replicate death or funeral activities in an attempt to cope with the loss.
A youngster may ask the same questions about the death repeatedly, not for the factual value of the information, but to ensure that the story has not changed.
A four- or five-year-old may start playing after a death as if nothing had happened. Such behaviour reflects the child’s cognitive and emotional capabilities, and does not imply that the death had no effect.
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic