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ERIC Number: EJ1078891
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-2752
EISSN: N/A
Suggestions for the Ideal Follow-Up for Bereaved Students as Seen by School Personnel
Dyregrov, Kari; Endsjø, Mathilde; Idsøe, Thormod; Dyregrov, Atle
Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties, v20 n3 p289-301 2015
Little is known about how teachers and head teachers (school personnel) attend to children experiencing grief. Our aim was to investigate what the school personnel perceive to be optimal help from the school in such situations. We conducted seven focus group interviews and one single interview among 17 teachers and 5 head teachers from primary and secondary schools. Although the school personnel obviously have high levels of empathy and commitment towards grieving students, they expressed limited knowledge about how child bereavement affects school performance, concentration, and learning, and how this restricted their own efforts to arrange for grieving children during the school day. They also signalled tensions created by the need to mediate too many tasks in the teacher's role, school staff's lack of grief knowledge, and guilt for not doing more for bereaved children at school. Despite the existence of solid theoretical and research base in the field of grief in children, opportunities for provision of evidence-validated intervention by teachers and other school personnel in response to grief, and prompt referral of bereaved children suffering more complex grief reactions, appear to be severely compromised. The school personnel pointed out the necessities for action plans and written routines, resources and clarifications of roles, and some basic help principles, key help measures, and improvements to improve the support for bereaved schoolchildren.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Norway
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A