Illness and Death of a Parent

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Background Characteristics

In the United States, more then 2 million children and adolescents (3.4%) younger than 18 years, have experienced death of a parent (Christ & Siegel, 2002:1296). In Conneticut alone 38,000 children under the age of 18 have experienced death of a parent (Emswiler & Emswiler, 2000:5). Raveis, Siegel, and Karus (1988) discovered that background characteristics of a child, the deceased parent, and family may affect the outcome of the child’s grief (Raveis, Siegel, Karus, 1998:167). The age and gender of the child also plays a major role in the outcome of the child’s grief. Younger children, under the age of five, and early adolescence, in particular, are vulnerable to poor adjustment to parental death.
According to Donna Schuurman (2003) the age of the child and corresponding developmental abilities influence their understanding, memory, and their ability to cope with the death of a parent. From, birth to two years of a...