Bereaved children more likely to have faced other difficult
events in childhood
Monday 26 October 2009
New research from NCB,
conducted on behalf of the Childhood Bereavement Network(CBN), has
found that children bereaved of a parent, sibling or close friend
are more likely than other children to have experienced a range of
difficult events in their lives. These include having had a stay in
hospital (around 60% more likely than nonbereaved children), having
a diagnosable mental health disorder (around 55% more likely),
having a parent with a serious mental illness (around 80% more
likely) or major financial crisis (around 40% more likely). They
are also over 60% more likely to have been excluded from
school.
The research, which reexamined data
from a Office of National Statistics study, also revealed that
children who have been bereaved of a parent or sibling are six
times more likely than their peers to have been in care at some
point in their lives.
The research explored the backgrounds
and life experiences of more that 7,500 children aged 5-16 year
olds, comparing those whose parent or sibling had died, those who
had faced the death of a close friend and those children who
weren’t reported as being bereaved in these ways. Around 1 in 29
school age children had been bereaved of a parent or sibling, and
around 1 in 16 had been bereaved of a close friend.
Children whose parent or sibling had
died, were reported to have more difficulty keeping friends than
their non bereaved peers, and were over 60% more likely to have an
anxiety disorder and drink alcohol regularly. Those whose friend
had died were more likely to have a conduct disorder and engage in
poor health behaviour, such as smoking and using cannabis.
Alison Penny, Coordinator of the
Childhood Bereavement Network, said ‘After a death, many children
say they feel lonely and different, and can be really worried about
something bad happening to someone else. They often report problems
with concentrating and being in school, and we know some are even
bullied.’
‘When someone dies, children and
families need extra support to handle the changes and challenges in
their lives. Specialist childhood bereavement services can help
young people find positive, healthy ways of managing their
feelings. And schools need good plans for flexible support to make
it as easy as possible for bereaved children to continue their
education.’
CBN is also calling for more research
into how bereavement affects children’s life chances, and for
specialist services to be easily accessible in every local area to
prevent children facing further disadvantage.
View
the report