The Benefits of a Grief and Loss Program With a Unique Technological Intervention

The grief process, difficult for anyone, is especially challenging for children and adolescents because they integrate loss differently from adults both in terms of cognition and emotion (Webb, 2011). Studies have found that bereaved children and adolescents are at high risk for depressive symptoms, anxiety, somatic complaints, and academic difficulties, compared with children and youth who are not grieving (Cohen & Mannarino, 2004; Dowdney, 2000). It is therefore important to provide effective intervention. While researchers have found age-appropriate and developmentally relevant strategies that help children and adolescents navigate the grief process (Rosner, Kruse, & Hagl, 2010; Sandler et al., 2010), additional data-based studies to explore optimal therapeutic services for these youth can provide new choices. This chapter contains a review of existing developmentally based models used to conceptualize children\u27s grief processes and a discussion of empirical studies concerning child and adolescent adaptation to loss, with a special focus on our recent study of a novel technological intervention. The chapter also includes a discussion of directions for future work