1st Edition
The Routledge International Handbook of Child and Adolescent Grief in Contemporary Contexts
This volume presents the leading research in child and adolescent grief from a diverse and global perspective, focusing on the systemic, political, and cultural processes that have a direct bearing on the way youth experience loss and grief.
Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen bring together a global community of academics, practitioners, and social activists to discuss and address the complexity of lived experiences of grief for young people today. Presented in four parts, the contributors begin by providing a theoretical overview of youth, grief, and bereavement, before moving onto other important topics, such as suicide bereavement, the trauma of war, digital grief narratives, child soldiering, and more. Within each chapter, authors address contemporary theoretical frameworks, research findings, and praxis related to both death and non-death losses, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, environmental grief, and grief on the internet and social media. Including contributors from a range of countries and from various disciplines, such as educators, health care professionals, policy makers, and advocates, the themes of coping, resilience, and growth are central and interwoven in each chapter.
This handbook is essential for researchers, clinicians, scholars, educators, parents, and activists as to the most pressing societal and global issues that affect youth grief today and to provide context to their personal and professional interactions with youth.
Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Introduction
Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen
Part I Section Summary: Introductory Considerations
Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen
1. Contemporary Perspectives on Childhood and Adolescence in a Global Context
Carrie Traher
2. Disenfranchised Youth Within a Global Context
Kenneth J. Doka
3. Death and Non-death Losses: Youth Grief in an Increasingly Volatile World
D. Courtney Howard
4. Culturally Competent Grief Counselling for Elementary School Students
Jillian M. Blueford and Stacy A. Pinto
Part II Section Summary: Grief and Bereavement
Lauren J. Breen
5. Family Care in a Scottish ICU during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Issues a Young Person Would Like Us to Hear
Catriona Macpherson and Rona Wood
6. Supporting Adolescents and Young People Through Death, Loss, and Grief in Botswana
Sithandazile Hope Msimanga
7. "You Probably Won't Understand": The Grief of Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities
Ronit Shalev
8. Social Formations of Pain and Suffering in a Nicaraguan Pediatric Hospital
Elysée Nouvet, Amber Carroll, Aziza Mohamadhossen, and Sima Saleh
9. Suicide Bereavement and Postvention Approaches for Young People in Scotland
Laura del Carpio, Sally Paul, and Susan Rasmussen
10. Grief Among Refugee Youth: Reflections of a Social Counsellor
Seren Güneş
11. De-naturalizing Manufactured Loss: Building a Decolonial Paradigm for Understanding the Experiences of Indigenous Children and Youth
Julie Hyde
12. Child Soldiering, Loss, and Reintegration: Experiences of Former Female Child Soldiers in Uganda
Allen Kiconco
Part III Section Summary: Global Matters: Facing Life and Death
Carrie Traher
13. A Virtual Space for Us: How LGBTQ+ Youth Grieve Online
Lorenza Entilli
14. Going Upriver: Understanding Indigenous Youths' Unique Perspectives on Safety in the Context of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada
Karine Duhamel
15. Living and Dying on the Street: Advocating for an End to Homelessness Through the Delivery of Palliative Care
Naheed Dosani and Carrie Traher
16. A Roof Over Your Head is not a Home: Youth Homelessness in Canada
Cora MacDonald, Jacqueline Sohn, Ahmad Bonakdar, and Carrie Traher
17. Global Trafficking/Sexual Exploitation of Youth: A Proposed Protocol for Grief and Traumatic Loss
David A. Crenshaw and Lori Stella
18. Hope, Grief, Loss and a Plethora of Feelings in Between: Lived Experiences of Teenage Pregnant Girls and Adolescent Mothers in India
Renu Singh and Adv. Rahul S. Saberwal
19. Global Perspectives on Youth Suicide: Saving the Next Generation
Liam Spicer
20. Palestinian Youth Loss: From Clinical to Sociopolitical Understandings
Athir Jisrawi
21. Children in Ukraine and the Trauma of War
Olena Vosnesenska and Olena Lutsenko
Part IV Section Summary: Loss as Growth and Resilience
Lauren J. Breen
22. Reflections on Supporting Children and Teens Who are Grieving
Donna L. Schuurman and Lauren J. Breen
23. Using Technology to Assist Grieving Children During a Pandemic
Lauren J. Breen, Jackie Tarabay, Shelly Skinner, and Laura Butshiire
24. The Impact of Gun Violence on Youth: From Thoughts and Prayers to Action
Carrie Traher
25. TikTok Memes of Grief: Playfulness and Dark Humour in Youth Digital Grief Narratives
Moa Eriksson Krutrök
26. #BlackLivesMatter and the African Diaspora in Australia
Claire Moran, Kathomi Gatwiri and Lauren J. Breen
27. "It's How We're Leaving a Mark": Youth Coalition Combatting Islamophobia and Grief Activism
Maryam Al-Sabawi, Ayesha Islam, Esa Islam, Jenna Korshed, Lisa McLean and Athir Jisrawi
28. Climate Change and Youth: Grief, Loss, Trauma, and Action
Linda Goldman
29. The Children's Sensorium: Art, Play, and Mindfulness for Children's Wellbeing, Recovery, and Resilience
Grace McQuilten, Larissa Hjorth, and Tamara Borovica
Biography
Carrie Traher, PhD FT, is an Associate Professor of Thanatology at King’s University College, London, Canada.
Lauren J. Breen, PhD FT, is a Professor of Psychology at Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
"This timely edited collection from Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen has both breadth and relevance. The chapters offer needed insight into areas that have for too long sat outside the lens of research, extending knowledge and establishing a foundation for improved practice."
Dr. Sam Frankel, Associate Professor, Childhood and Youth Studies, King’s University College, Canada and Founder – Learning Allowed, UK
"In this impressive volume, Traher and Breen have brought together leading thinkers from around the world to explore child and adolescent grief in a wide array of contexts. Compelling and urgent, this edited collection shows the scale and depth of the impact of loss for this population. It will be a reference point for years to come."
Dr. Kate Woodthorpe, Director of Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK
"As the strikingly diverse contributions to this timely Handbook demonstrate, children and youth stand at the crosshairs of many of this century’s most endemic and intractable sources of trauma and tragedy. Across cultures, continents, and contexts of care, those who are most vulnerable bear a disproportionate share of the often unseen, disenfranchised, or silenced grief that results. Traher and Breen have assembled a formidable resource in these pages to bring such suffering among youth to light, and to point to model programs that foster their ultimate resilience."
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, Editor of New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond
"The International Handbook of Child and Adolescent Grief in Contemporary Contexts covers an impressive range of international issues involving child and adolescent grief which will broaden the perspective of even the most experienced clinician as a result. The editors and contributors have done a phenomenal job of weaving together research and practice, with many of the chapters including important strategies and recommendations to inform organizational development and policy making as well as direct clinical practice."
Andrea Warnick, RN, Registered Psychotherapist, Andrea Warnick Consulting
"Traher and Breen's comprehensive exploration of child and adolescent death and non-death losses is a timely and indispensable addition to the field of grief studies. With contributions from leading international scholars and clinicians, its meticulously crafted chapters, informed by rigorous research and scholarship, offer a comprehensive view of the intricate tapestry of child and adolescent grief. It is a must-read for clinicians, scholars, and policymakers who seek a deeper understanding of the complex experiences of young people dealing with loss."
Christopher Hall, CEO, Grief Australia
"In today's swiftly evolving and world, numerous children and adolescents find themselves confronting the challenges, ambiguities, and uncertainties associated with death and bereavement. Carrie Traher and Lauren J. Breen skillfully compiled a wealth of information on contemporary challenges in assisting children and adolescents who grapple with a diverse array of death-related experiences. This book stands as an invaluable resource for anyone working with children and adolescents, providing insights and guidance crucial for navigating the complex terrain of death-related issues in the lives of young individuals."
Regina Szylit RN, MsN, PhD, FANN, Professor and Dean, School of Nursing, University of São Paulo, Brazil
"Of the 29 chapters, all bring the voices of experts, either academics, practitioners, or persons with lived experience, to build a narrative of foundational concepts, practice, and experience. From individual loss to collective loss, the book explores in a way that readers can gain a solid grounding and application to the benefit of the children and young people they engage with in times of grief and loss."
Roberts, M. (2024). Book review, Death Studies, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2024.2316407.
