Depression risks for bereaved children
By Catherine Walker
Whilst major advances have been made in our understanding of grief in adults, little is known about the grief of children and adolescents who experiences the death of a parent.
A new study has made advances in understanding the course of grief reactions after sudden parental death and the effect of those reactions on their mental health and their general functioning.
The study was undertaken by researchers from the Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in conjunction with the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago.
The study was conducted from July 2002 through to January 2007. Annual assessments were carried out for up to three years after parental death.
Participants in this study were recruited through a newspaper advertisement and also through coroners’ records. A total of 182 children who had lost a parent through death were recruited. These individuals were aged between 7 and 18 years. Their parents died as a result of suicide, unintentional injury or sudden natural causes.
The aim of the study was to measure grief, functional impairment and incident of depression in this group of children and adolescents.
The researchers found that there were three different distinct grief reactions groups within the participants.
Group 1 was made up of 10.4% of participants. This group showed no change in their grief after 33 months since bereavement. The individuals in this group were considered to have prolonged grief reactions and they all had a previous, personal history of depression. Prolonged grief made unique contributions to increased levels of functional impairment even after when the individual had received treatment for depression both before and after bereavement. Prolonged grief in children and adolescents, and their surviving caregiver, predisposed this group to an increased risk of depression.
Group 2 was comprised of 30.8% of participants. This group showed increased grief reaction nine months after the death. This grief gradually decreased over time. Despite this finding, grief reactions in this group were associated with functional impairment and an increased risk of incident of depression.
The conclusion of this study is that grief reactions abate over time for most children and adolescents who have been bereaved through sudden parental death. However, a subset shows increased or prolonged grief reaction, which in turn increases the risk of functional impairment and depression.
Research regarding interventions designed to relieve the burden of grief in bereaved children and adolescents are needed. This should also be extended to assess and address grief reactions in the surviving parent.
