Assessing children's and teenagers' bereavement when a sibling dies from cancer: a secondary analysis

• Published in: Child : care, health & development Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 381 - 400
• Main Author: Birenbaum, L K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.09.2000; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Attitude to Death; Bereavement; Cancer; Child; Children; Cognitive Processes; Cross-Sectional Studies; Death; Depression (Psychology); Emotions; Evaluative Thinking; Family Health; Female; Grief; Health Services; Humans; Literature Reviews; Male; Medical Services; Mental Health; Neoplasms; Parents; Psychological Patterns; Psychometrics; Siblings
• ISSN: 0305-1862; 1365-2214
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2214.2000.00150.x

Summary The purposes of this paper are to: (1) provide conceptual and empirical descriptions of the most frequently reported children's and teenagers' responses in anticipation of and after the death of a sibling from cancer; (2) describe these behaviours by age groups (3–5, 6–11 and 12–19 years); and (3) discuss the clinical utility of two new scales measuring children's bereavement. The literature review and an exploratory secondary analysis from a prospective longitudinal design were used to develop the empirical criteria for behavioural items indicative of bereavement. Data from four points in time: (1) 2 months before a child's death; (2) 2 weeks after death; (3) 4 months after death; and (4) 12 months after death were treated as a cross‐sectional design, because of sample size, to describe bereavement behaviours and to discuss the beginning development of a screening tool for childhood bereavement services