Insights into the grief of parentally bereaved young people: a grounded theory study exploring young people’s psychological and emotional experiences following the death of a parent

This study aims to explore the lived psychological and emotional experiences of parentally bereaved young people. There has been little research carried out which seeks to understand the meaning and complexity of the individual’s world through the analysis of their personal account of events and experiences. This research aims to highlight the experience of those bereaved at a young age, observing both the challenging and helpful aspects of support. Using grounded theory analysis based on Charmaz’s social constructivist approach, the study reports on the outcomes of semi--‐structured interviews conducted with eleven bereaved boys and girls in North London. Five superordinate themes were identified: Losses; Disrupted identities; Struggling to make sense of grief; Role of others; and Finding a new kind of normal. The researcher also identified two overarching themes: time and ambivalence. The research highlights the extent to which young people are emotionally and psychologically affected by the premature death of a parent. The findings demonstrate that grieving is an individual process, yet there are common threads that can be drawn together in order to provide a framework for grief’s trajectory. Bridging research and practice, recommendations are made on how best to support this often overlooked group of vulnerable young people which include improved family support programmes at bereavement organisations, a new information guide for bereaved young people and a bereavement training programme for professionals. Recommendations are also made for further research and dissemination of information on best practice.