Complicated Grief Reactions in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

An understanding of complicated grief in youth is incomplete, because the full range of observed, theorized, and studied symptoms and reactions has not yet been examined in different age groups. Until recently, scales to assess complicated grief in youth were based on adult constructs of complicated grief and did not include many of the symptoms and reactions proposed for posttrauma grief. Much can be learned from adult theories and findings. Nevertheless, future prospective studies are needed that include children from different age groups and with different personal traits, environmental conditions, relationships with the deceased, and circumstances of loss.

Keywords:

• childhood complicated grief
• prolonged grief
• trajectories of grief
• traumatic grief