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

This article reports the findings from four data collection points of parental responses over an 18-month period 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 they perceived little change over time in their children’s responses; surviving adolescents continued to have multiple grief reactions & behavioural changes up to two years after the sibling’s death. There were parental role differences between mothers & fathers across time in the perceptions of sibling grief. (29 refs)