TY - JOUR
T1 - Bereavement Groups for Inner-City Children
AU - Schilling, Robert F.
AU - Koh, Nina
AU - Abramovitz, Robert
AU - Gilbert, Louisa
PY - 1992/7
Y1 - 1992/7
N2 - Guided by theory, empirical research, and clinical experience, this demonstration tested a 12-session group intervention for 38 inner-city children who had lost a caregiver. The design of the group intervention was guided by the psychodynamic tradition of the sponsoring agency, themes from the bereavement literature, and findings from intervention research on bereaved children and adults. Attendance for the group intervention was high among those 29 children who completed posttests. The loss of the parent figure often had an impact on caregiving and living arrangements. Children rated themselves as significantly more depressed at pretest than their caregivers rated them, but at posttest this difference diminished. However, the majority of children remained depressed throughout the study. Pretest and posttest comparisons suggest that the treatment intervention may have enabled children to develop a more mature concept of death. Mixed outcomes and the methodological limitations of the study allow for multiple interpretations. Nevertheless, modest results reported here may encourage other clinical researchers to build on this early effort. Better understanding of how to treat bereaved children must await controlled, longitudinal research.
AB - Guided by theory, empirical research, and clinical experience, this demonstration tested a 12-session group intervention for 38 inner-city children who had lost a caregiver. The design of the group intervention was guided by the psychodynamic tradition of the sponsoring agency, themes from the bereavement literature, and findings from intervention research on bereaved children and adults. Attendance for the group intervention was high among those 29 children who completed posttests. The loss of the parent figure often had an impact on caregiving and living arrangements. Children rated themselves as significantly more depressed at pretest than their caregivers rated them, but at posttest this difference diminished. However, the majority of children remained depressed throughout the study. Pretest and posttest comparisons suggest that the treatment intervention may have enabled children to develop a more mature concept of death. Mixed outcomes and the methodological limitations of the study allow for multiple interpretations. Nevertheless, modest results reported here may encourage other clinical researchers to build on this early effort. Better understanding of how to treat bereaved children must await controlled, longitudinal research.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84965459120&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/104973159200200315
DO - 10.1177/104973159200200315
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84965459120
SN - 1049-7315
VL - 2
SP - 405
EP - 419
JO - Research on Social Work Practice
JF - Research on Social Work Practice
IS - 3
ER -