Conflicting with current life-cycle expectations, the death of a child may be experienced as the death of the parents' future dreams as well as creating a profound change in their present roles and functioning. Children are expected to live to adulthood. In contrast to the past when families might have had several children die, death in childhood is now rare. Although once common, deaths of children between the ages of 1 and 14 now account for less than 5 percent of all deaths in the United States about 57,428 infants, children, and adolescents died in 1996. Integrating the loss of a child into the life narrative, making sense and new meanings of such a wrenching event, presents a challenge to parents and family.
Recent findings suggest that parents of children who die from any cause are more likely to suffer symptoms of traumatic stress and experience more severe problems with emotional dysregulation than occurs with the death of a spouse. In addition, while the overall death rate for children aged 14 and younger has declined substantially since the 1950s childhood homicide rates have tripled and suicide rates have quadrupled. Unintended injuries are the leading cause of death in children age 1 to 14 and account for more than half of all deaths among young people 15 to 19 years of age. Forewarning is important because according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about half of child deaths occur during infancy, most with limited preparation time. This conclusion must be considered cautiously, however, since these studies have typically confounded sample differences in age and degree of forewarning. The few studies that have compared responses to different types of losses have found that the loss of a child is followed by a more intense grief than the death of a spouse or a parent. Individuals and families have many capabilities and abilities that allow them to respond to interpersonal loss and to emerge from the experience changed but not broken. While bereavement is stressful whenever it occurs, studies continue to provide evidence that the greatest stress, and often the most enduring one, occurs for parents who experience the death of a child. The death of a child of any age is a profound, difficult, and painful experience.
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