[1] Children will experience instances in their life that could involve losing a parent, sibling, or friend through suicide, unintentional injury, homicide, or natural causes.
[6] Different forms of treatment for children experiencing bereavement and or grief can help to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, social adjustment, and posttraumatic stress.
[4] Research has shown that it is important to be aware of the difficulties in predicting how losing a closed one can impact a child’s emotionality and how their coping abilities will differ across ages and cultures.
[11] The loss of a family member, in addition to complicated bereavement, increases the risk of experiencing a range of negative psychological consequences including depression, post-traumatic stress, higher levels of drug and alcohol use and more self-injury than non-bereaved peers.
[3] It is common to assume children will grieve in a similar fashion to adults, but their symptoms and duration of grief following loss appears differently.
[3] Research emphasizes the importance of being cognizant of and not to expect children to display their emotions outwardly like adults, but rather that their behaviors could indicate their internal distress.
[6] The different forms of treatment aiming to assist children in coping with loss and bereavement also help to reduce their symptoms of anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, and posttraumatic stress.