The Bereaved Child Analysis, Education and Treatment: An Abstracted Bibliography

The Bereaved Child: Analysis, Education, and Treatment. An ab­ stracted bibliography is a comprehensive abstracted bibliography focusing on the reactions and coping mechanisms of children and adolescents to the death of parents, siblings, friends, teachers, pets or even presidents. Publication~ dealing with both normative and pathological stages of bereavement are reviewed. Materials covering childhood concepts/attitudes toward death are included. Citations appear which explore child death education/counseling issues for parents and educators when they involve actual or antic­ ipated death. Articles are reviewed which deal with the importance of the adult role in the mourning process of the child. For example, decisions such as whether a child should attend a funeral or return to school are examined. Publications are included which explore the short and l'ong term developmental consequences of childhood death experience. It is important to note that the topic of the dying child was excluded. The Bereaved Child contains over 550 citations in author­ alphabetized and abstracted form. Only English-written books and periodicals are represented. A quick glance will reveal that the bulk of the material is post-1960. This reflects the recency of in­ terest and study in the area of childhood bereavement. Literature across multiple disciplines was scanned and included. Psychology, medicine, social work, and education are heavily represented, while no theological, literary, or popular sources were examined.