Parents' Perceptions of Adolescent Sibling Grief Responses after an Adolescent or Young Adult Child's Sudden, Violent Death

Abstract

The violent death of an adolescent or young adult child is a highly traumatic event for surviving families. A major family adaptation issue relates to individual differences in coping with violent death. This article reports the findings from four data collection points of parental responses over an 18-month time frame to an open-ended question about the difficulties experienced by surviving adolescent children after their sibling's death. The data show that parents reported that they perceived little change over time in their children's responses; surviving adolescents continued to have multiple grief reactions and behavioral changes up to 2 years after the sibling's death. There were parental role differences between mothers and fathers across time in the perceptions of sibling grief. Further research is needed to understand the sibling grief process following violent death and to develop nursing interventions to support bereaved families.