Physical & developmental effects of childhood bereavement - New studies

'Father & Daughter ' (c) Helene Souza

Examining potential correlations between childhood bereavement and long term adverse mental and physical effects continues to provide considerable ground for research.   

Two recent studies present new insights into little explored long term issues for parentally bereaved children.

Brent et al in 'Longitudinal effects of parental bereavement on adolescent developmental competence' examine the extent to which sudden parental bereavement in childhood hinders developmental competency. Their  longitudinal study reported outcomes for 126 children who had experienced a sudden parental death, comparing to a similar non bereaved control group at various intervals up to 5 years post bereavement.
Their findings indicated children who had experienced sudden loss of a parent illustrated less competence in educational development, career planning and peer relations into adulthood.

Dietz et al in an article pre published this week in Biological Psychiatry examine cortisol response in parentally bereaved children. 

Their research which sampled cortisol in 181 bereaved and non bereaved subjects over a 5 year period found a higher cortisol output in children who had experienced parental bereavement. 
They conclude that this higher incidence of cortisol may represent an increased health risk worthy of further study.