Perceived Social Support and Individual Differences in Childhood Traumatic Grief

Grief has long been a topic of study and debate among researchers, but the concept of Childhood Traumatic Grief (CTG) has only recently been introduced and accepted as a condition in need of better understanding. Childhood Traumatic Grief is defined as occurring “…when children whose loved ones die in circumstances that are subjectively traumatic develop trauma symptoms which impinge on these children's abilities to engage in the typical tasks of grieving” (Cohen, Mannarino, Greenberg, Padlo, & Shipley, 2002; Pynoos & Nader, 1990). Social support has been recognized as correlating with grief symptoms in adults, but has never been analyzed in relationship to Childhood Traumatic Grief. The purpose of this study is to determine whether differences in perceived social support in children correlates with self-reported Childhood Traumatic Grief symptoms following a loss. Implications for these results are discussed.