Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
J Pediatr Nurs. 2022 Sep-Oct;66:e1-e8. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2022.07.003. Epub 2022 Jul 9.
The loss of a child in a family is a painful experience. Despite this, most studies focus on the grieving experience of parents. Our understanding of sibling bereavement therefore remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the bereavement experience of younger bereaved siblings from the perspective of the bereaved child and the parents.
This study is a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong. We recruited eleven bereaved families from 2019 to 2020. Semi-structured interviews were conducted separately with bereaved children and parents. Thematic analyses were performed.
Eleven bereaved siblings, aged 5 to 11, and their parents were interviewed. Four themes were generated: Parents' unawareness of bereaved siblings' grief, protecting parents from grief, comparison with the deceased siblings, and learning how to grieve.
Our findings suggest that the family dynamics and interactions in the grieving experience are complex. The impact of grief on the bereaved child could emanate from the loss of the sibling or from the grief of the parents or from family interactions.
This study highlights the importance of viewing the sibling bereavement experience in a family context and of enhancing sibling bereavement services. Helping professionals should not only provide more bereavement support to the bereaved siblings individually, but they should also enhance parents' capacity to support their bereaved children.
孩子在家庭中的离去是一种痛苦的经历。尽管如此，大多数研究仍集中在父母的悲伤体验上。因此，我们对兄弟姐妹丧亲的理解仍未得到充分探索。本研究旨在通过从丧亲儿童和父母的角度探讨丧亲儿童的丧亲经历来弥补这一空白。
这是一项在香港进行的定性研究。我们于 2019 年至 2020 年期间招募了 11 个丧亲家庭。分别对丧亲儿童和父母进行了半结构化访谈。进行了主题分析。
采访了 11 名 5 至 11 岁的丧亲兄弟姐妹及其父母。得出了四个主题：父母对丧亲兄弟姐妹悲伤的无知、保护父母免受悲伤、与已故兄弟姐妹的比较以及学习如何悲伤。
我们的研究结果表明，悲伤体验中的家庭动态和相互作用是复杂的。悲伤对丧亲儿童的影响可能源于兄弟姐妹的丧失，也可能源于父母的悲伤或家庭互动。
本研究强调了在家庭背景下看待兄弟姐妹丧亲经历的重要性，并强调了加强兄弟姐妹丧亲服务的重要性。帮助专业人员不仅应单独为丧亲兄弟姐妹提供更多的丧亲支持，还应增强父母支持丧亲子女的能力。
