Childhood Traumatic Grief Essay

Words: 1212
Pages: 5

In order to fully encapsulate the problem of childhood traumatic grief, it is important to understand its many aspects. Traumatic grief, in both children and adults, stems from complications, obstacles, and/or repressed emotions during the grieving process, and has extremely adverse effects on the health of the griever. The type of loss suffered can affect the likelihood of the development of traumatic grief, as can a number of other factors such as age, maturity, treatment, availability of emotional support, the actions of the adults around the child, mental stability, previous trauma, and many others. Once traumatic grief can be diagnosed, generally no matter how it originally developed, it wreaks havoc on the wellbeing of the child. Short-term …show more content…
Children, in particular, are more likely to lash out against parents and teachers, stop paying attention in class, refuse to finish assignments, and have behavioral problems. Bereaved children are much more likely to experience the symptoms of developmental problems and dysfunctional issues than their peers, especially if their grief is traumatic (Brent et al. 779). Therefore, the long-term effects of traumatic grief are even more negative and destructive than can stem from healthy grieving. Among the effects that traumatic grief can leave, bereaved children have “less optimal adaptation with respect to achievements in education, work and career planning, and peer and romantic relationships” than nonbereaved children (780). Additional research shows that grief directly correlates with poor academic performance in school-age children; without support for their trauma, children decline rapidly in their schoolwork, social lives, and emotional stability. Traumatic grief can lead to anger issues, risky behavior, and unpredictable outbursts such as running away; therefore, grief that goes untreated poses a health and safety risk to a bereaved child, both by placing him or her in a state of mind that could lead to immediate danger, and by cultivating developmental problems later in life (Mauk