The Psychological and Emotional Impact of Sudden Parental Death on Children’s Grief
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64420/ijcp.v2i2.274Keywords:
Grief, Bereavemen, Sudden parental death, Psychological impact, Emotional responseAbstract
Background: The sudden death of a parent is a deeply traumatic event for children, often causing significant emotional and psychological disruptions that hinder their development and academic performance. Objective: This study investigated the psychological and emotional impacts of sudden parental death on children. Method: Using a descriptive survey design, data were collected through the validated Sudden Parental Death Impact Assessment Questionnaire (SPDIQ), with high internal consistency (α = 0.85, 0.72, 0.81). SPSS v25 was used to analyze responses via descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. Results: Findings showed that emotional shock, isolation, fear, and suicidal thoughts were among the most reported effects, along with depression and academic decline. Moderate, statistically significant correlations existed between sudden parental death and both emotional and psychological distress. Conclusion: The study confirms that sudden parental death has a measurable and distressing impact on children, irrespective of the background of the supporting counselor. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the field of child developmental psychology, school counseling, and bereavement studies by revealing the quantified severity of emotional-psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and academic disruption correlated with sudden parental loss regarding children's traumatic grief within the context of validated psychometric assessment (SPDIQ) and counselor effectiveness evaluation, an area that remains scarcely investigated in literature. These findings enrich existing empirical evidence and serve as a strategic reference for school counselors, clinical child psychologists, social workers, and educational policymakers in designing standardized trauma-informed grief interventions and holistic school-based psychosocial support systems.
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