Highlights
- •The impact of grief on the bereaved child could emanate from the loss of the sibling or from the grief of the parents.
- •This study highlights the importance of viewing the sibling bereavement experience in a family context.
- •Helping professionals may strengthen their role in enhancing parents' capacity to support their bereaved children.
Abstract
Introduction
The loss of a child in a family is a painful experience. Despite this, most studies
focus on the grieving experience of parents. Our understanding of sibling bereavement
therefore remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by exploring
the bereavement experience of younger bereaved siblings from the perspective of the
bereaved child and the parents.
Method
This study is a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong. We recruited eleven bereaved
families from 2019 to 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted separately with
bereaved children and parents. Thematic analyses were performed.
Findings
Eleven bereaved siblings, aged 5 to 11, and their parents were interviewed. Four themes
were generated: Parents' unawareness of bereaved siblings' grief, protecting parents
from grief, comparison with the deceased siblings, and learning how to grieve.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that the family dynamics and interactions in the grieving experience
are complex. The impact of grief on the bereaved child could emanate from the loss
of the sibling or from the grief of the parents or from family interactions.
Practice implications
This study highlights the importance of viewing the sibling bereavement experience
in a family context and of enhancing sibling bereavement services. Helping professionals
should not only provide more bereavement support to the bereaved siblings individually,
but they should also enhance parents' capacity to support their bereaved children.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Pediatric Nursing: Nursing Care of Children and FamiliesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Communication about dying, death, and bereavement: A systematic review of children’s literature.Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2017; 20: 548-559
- Perception of Indian parents on health-related quality of life of children during maintenance therapy of acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A comparison with siblings and healthy children.Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 2014; 36: 30-36
- Parental perceptions of siblings’ grieving after a childhood cancer death: A longitudinal study.Death Studies. 2013; 37: 25-46
- Patterns of parental bereavement following the loss of a child and related factors.Omega (Westport). 2007; 55: 145-167
- Families grieving together: Integrating the loss of a child through ongoing relational connections.Death Studies. 2020; 44: 498-509
- Assessing children’s and teenagers’ bereavement when a sibling dies from cancer: A secondary analysis.Child: Care, Health and Development. 2000; 26: 381-400
- Bereavement after sibling death: A population-based longitudinal case-control study.World Psychiatry. 2016; 15: 59-66
- Exploring children’s understanding of death: Through drawings and the death concept questionnaire.Death Studies. 2013; 37: 47-60
- Using thematic analysis in psychology.Qualitative Research in Psychology. 2006; 3: 77-101
- The fundamental paradox in the grief literature: A critical reflection.Omega (Westport). 2007; 55: 199-218
- Invitation to grief in the family context.Death Studies. 2019; 43: 173-182
- Therapeutic play and creative arts: Helping children cope with illness, death, and grief.Oxford University Press, 2008
- Cognitive development considerations to support bereaved students: Practical applications for school psychologists.Contemporary School Psychology. 2015; 19: 103-111
- Young children’s grief: Parents’ understanding and coping.Death Studies. 2014; 38: 36-43
- Facing the loss of siblings in childhood: Interactions and dynamics between bereaved siblings and their parents.in: Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health, York, United Kingdom. 2019
- Fifth report of the child fatality review panel.(Retrieved from)
- Grief communication: Exploring disclosure and avoidance across the developmental Spectrum.Western Journal of Communication. 2018; 82: 238-257
- Using available clinical information in practice-based research: Mining for silver while dreaming of gold.Social Work in Health Care. 2001; 33: 15-32
- Dynamic and heterogeneous effects of sibling death on children’s outcomes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2018; 115: 115-120
- Comparison of continuing bonds reported by parents and siblings after a child’s death from cancer.Death Studies. 2011; 35: 420-440
- A child dies, a child survives: The impact of sibling loss.Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 1992; 6: 65-72
- Parenting surviving children after the death of a child from cancer: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.Journal of Child and Family Studies. 2021; 30: 2225-2237
- Adolescent sibling bereavement: An ongoing attachment.Qualitative Health Research. 1992; 2: 159-177
- Discordance in parents’ and adolescents’ reports of parenting: A meta-analysis and qualitative review.American Psychologist. 2020; 75: 329-348
- The influence of parent distress and parenting on bereaved Siblings’ externalizing problems.Journal of Child and Family Studies. 2020; 29: 1081-1093
- Predictors of children’s understandings of death: Age, cognitive ability, death experience and maternal communicative competence.Omega (Westport). 2008; 57: 143-162
- When children die : Improving palliative and end-of-life care for children and their families.National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.2003
- The use of multiple informants to assess children’s maltreatment experiences.Journal of Family Violence. 1994; 9: 227-248
- When a child dies: A systematic review of well-defined parent-focused bereavement interventions and their alignment with grief- and loss theories.BMC Palliative Care. 2020; 19: 28
- The effects of sibling death on the surviving child: A family perspective.Family Process. 1979; 18: 471-477
- Experiences and coping of adults with death of siblings during childhood in Chinese context: Implications for therapeutic interventions.International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 2022; 16: 179-187
- Impact of sibling death on children’s behavior.Death Studies. 1985; 9: 323-335
- The indirect effect of positive parenting on the relationship between parent and sibling bereavement outcomes after the death of a child.Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2016; 51: 60-70
- Families of young pediatric cancer survivors: A cross-sectional survey examining physical activity behavior and health-related quality of life.Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing. 2010; 27: 196-208
- Parental awareness of sibling adjustment: Perspectives of parents and siblings of children with Cancer.Journal of Family Psychology. 2020; 34: 698-708
- Population-by-Census- Main Result 2016.(Retrieved from)
- Experience of sibling death in childhood and risk of psychiatric care in adulthood: A national cohort study from Sweden.European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2019; 28: 1581-1588
- Suicide following the death of a sibling: A nationwide follow-up study from Sweden.BMJ Open. 2013; 3e002618
- Death of the future?: An outcome study of bereaved parents in Israel.OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. 1990; 20: 323-339
- Young children's understanding of death.Australian Psychologist. 2005; 40: 179-186
- Empowering bereaved parents through the development of a comprehensive bereavement program.Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2017; 53: 767-775
- Understanding how bereaved parents cope with their grief to inform the services provided to them.Qualitative Health Research. 2017; 27: 649-664
- The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description.Death Studies. 1999; 23: 197-224
- The dual process model of coping with bereavement.: A decade on.Omega (Westport). 2010; 61: 273-289
- Family matters in bereavement: Toward an integrative intra-interpersonal coping model.Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2015; 10: 873-879
- Dealing with the concepts of “grief” and “grieving” in the classroom: Children’s perceptions, emotions, and behavior.Omega (Westport). 2018; 77: 240-266
- The veridicality of children’s reports of parenting: A review of factors contributing to parent–child discrepancies.Clinical Psychology Review. 2010; 30: 999-1010
- The annual report 2020–2021. Hong Kong the comfort care concern group.2021
- Pre-loss grief and preparedness for death among caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients: A systematic review.Social Science & Medicine. 2021; 284114240
- Bereavement: A family life cycle perspective.Family Science. 2013; 4: 20-27
- Holding parents so they can hold their children: Grief work with surviving spouses to support parentally bereaved children.Omega (Westport). 2013; 66: 1-16
Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 08, 2022
Accepted:
July 2,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 23,
2022
Received:
March 7,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
