Beyond Community Violence: Loss and Traumatic Grief in African American Elementary School Children

Abstract

The current study examined loss and childhood traumatic grief (CTG) in a sample of 403 African American school children in grades 6-8. Three out of four of these children reported the death of a close family member or friend, with deaths more than twice as likely to occur from illness and disease as from violence. Almost one-quarter of the children reporting a loss from any source scored in the severe traumatic grief range. After statistically controlling for witnessing violence, victimization and family violence, CTG was a significant contributor to PTSD, internalizing behavior problems, depression and poor academic achievement for girls, and particularly so for boys for whom it also predicted acting out. These data indicate that loss and traumatic grief are pervasive in the lives of these inner-city children who appear to be more affected by these events than the often-studied exposure to community violence.

Examining the Effects of Family and Community Violence on African American Adolescents: The Roles of Violence Type and Relationship Proximity to Violence

“…For the variable-centered analyses, the first research question explored whether the factor structure of a proposed three-factor model of cross-contextual violence exposure that characterizes violence by type and relationship proximity fit the current data. In line with previous research (Jenkins et al, 2014;Lambert et al, 2012;Mitchell et al, 2015), Hypothesis 1 predicted that higher levels of exposure to violence with victims of closer relationship proximity (e.g., self, friends, and family) and more severe violence types (e.g., weapons and death) would be more strongly related to higher levels of internalizing symptoms than exposure to violence with victims of more distant relationship proximity (e.g., acquaintances). The paucity of research using combinations of proximity and type of violence exposure limited the ability to make specific predictions about interactions between factors.…”

“…Previous theory on developmental psychopathology of child traumatic stress suggests that youth may suppress concerns for themselves and experience intense emotional distress when they believe significant attachment figures are in danger (Pynoos, Steinberg, & Piacentini, 1999). As mentioned previously, traumatic grief and associated mental health symptoms, including anxiety, may follow the sudden loss of a loved one (Jenkins et al, 2014; Melhem et al, 2007), and perhaps anticipation or fear of experiencing such a devastating loss could similarly increase anxiety symptoms. Other research indicates that threats to family and friends may also affect youth expectations for their own safety.…”

“…Beyond weapons, loss of significant others is a unique form of violence that contributes to mental health difficulties. Specifically, youth may experience traumatic grief when losing someone close to them in sudden or unexpected circumstances (Jenkins, Wang, & Turner, 2014), and the experience of traumatic grief in childhood has been associated with increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and PTSD (Melhem, Moritz, Walker, Shear, & Brent, 2007).…”

Bereavement and educational outcomes in children and young people: A systematic review

“…Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 summarize the quantitative and qualitative studies, respectively. About half of the studies were conducted in the United States (Balk, 1990;Cox et al, 2016;Fristad et al, 1993;Harris, 1991;Jenkins et al, 2014;Oosterhoff et al, 2018;Servaty-Seib & Hamilton, 2006;Thyden et al, 2020;Van Eerdewegh et al, 1982, 1985Williams & Aber, 2016;Youngblut et al, 2019). The remaining studies originated from the United Kingdom (Abdelnoor & Hollins, 2004a;Abdelnoor & Hollins, 2004b;Pitman et al, 2018), Norway (Burrell et al, 2020;Steele et al, 2009), Sweden (Berg et al, 2014), Denmark (Høeg et al, 2019), Finland (Prix & Erola, 2017), China/ Tibet (Liu et al, 2019) and South Korea (Khang et al, 2020).…”

“…In general, the studies reported negative impacts of bereavement on educational outcomes. Five quantitative studies reported lower academic grades in bereaved children and adolescents (Abdelnoor & Hollins, 2004b;Berg et al, 2014;Jenkins et al, 2014;Oosterhoff et al, 2018;Van Eerdewegh et al, 1982, 1985. Whilst Berg et al (2014) additionally reported a higher risk of academic failure longitudinally, Van Eerdewegh et al (1982;1985) did not find any association between bereavement and grade failure in 13 months after bereavement.…”