In the United States, nearly 62,000 children and adolescents are bereaved by the death of a sibling each year. Bereaved siblings and parents are at a lifelong risk for negative physical and psychological outcomes, yet little is known about the support and resource needs in the first 6 months following death. The purpose of this study is to determine the best ways to identify bereavement needs and barriers to grief support for parents and children following sibling death and to assess how bereavement needs impact parental distress and child quality of life and grief.

This study is for children between 8 and 17 years of age who have experienced the death of a sibling in the past 24 months. Children must have a parent or primary care giver actively take part in the study with them as a parent-child dyad. Information from this study will be used to help understand how to improve the care and support of parents and siblings that have experienced a loss.