The Bereaved Child

This is a one-year prospective study of one hundred and five 2 to 17 year old children of a consecutive sample of young widows and widowers in the community and of the children of controls. The children's reactions to the parental death were recorded at one month and thirteen months after the event in a structured interview with the surviving parent. The interview included items of general adaption to the death, school performance, behaviour problems, symptoms relevant to psychopathological manifestations (depression, anxiety, etc.) and general health. The results indicate a significant increase of dysphoria which disappears over time (P less than 0.0001), the persistence of a minor form of depression (P less than 0.03), an increase in bedwetting (P less than 0.03), and a significant degree of impairment in school performance (P less than 0.0001). There were no significant increases in behaviour problems and severe forms of depression. The children's general health was not affected. Those results are compared to currently available data on childhood bereavement and discussed in the light of conflicting reports relating parental loss to adult psychopathology.