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It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19

Presently, there is a real possibility of a second pandemic occurring: a grief pandemic. There are estimated to be over 1 million children and young people experiencing bereavement because of Covid-19. Adolescent grief is unique due to bio-psycho-social factors such as increased risk-taking, identit...

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Autores principales: Weinstock, Louis, Dunda, Dunja, Harrington, Hannah, Nelson, Hannah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7940762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33708148
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.638940
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author Weinstock, Louis
Dunda, Dunja
Harrington, Hannah
Nelson, Hannah
author_facet Weinstock, Louis
Dunda, Dunja
Harrington, Hannah
Nelson, Hannah
author_sort Weinstock, Louis
collection PubMed
description Presently, there is a real possibility of a second pandemic occurring: a grief pandemic. There are estimated to be over 1 million children and young people experiencing bereavement because of Covid-19. Adolescent grief is unique due to bio-psycho-social factors such as increased risk-taking, identity-formation, and limited capacity for emotional regulation. In this article, we will argue that adolescents are at increased risk of developing complicated grief during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it is vital that services are improved to recognize and address this need before secondary problems emerge, including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Complicated grief in adolescents is widely underrecognized and often misdiagnosed as a range of mental health problems, addictions, and offending behavior. For example, 25% of <20 year olds who commit suicide have experienced childhood bereavement, whilst 41% of youth offenders have experienced childhood bereavement; this is in comparison with only 4% of the general population. Many of the broader risk factors for complicated grief were already increasing prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, including increased loneliness amongst young people, and the collapse of collective structures to help people manage grief. We propose that this pandemic could be a catalyst for mental health professionals to support and nurture the caring communities emerging in this time as an essential resource to prevent the onset of a grief pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-79407622021-03-10 It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19 Weinstock, Louis Dunda, Dunja Harrington, Hannah Nelson, Hannah Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Presently, there is a real possibility of a second pandemic occurring: a grief pandemic. There are estimated to be over 1 million children and young people experiencing bereavement because of Covid-19. Adolescent grief is unique due to bio-psycho-social factors such as increased risk-taking, identity-formation, and limited capacity for emotional regulation. In this article, we will argue that adolescents are at increased risk of developing complicated grief during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it is vital that services are improved to recognize and address this need before secondary problems emerge, including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Complicated grief in adolescents is widely underrecognized and often misdiagnosed as a range of mental health problems, addictions, and offending behavior. For example, 25% of <20 year olds who commit suicide have experienced childhood bereavement, whilst 41% of youth offenders have experienced childhood bereavement; this is in comparison with only 4% of the general population. Many of the broader risk factors for complicated grief were already increasing prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, including increased loneliness amongst young people, and the collapse of collective structures to help people manage grief. We propose that this pandemic could be a catalyst for mental health professionals to support and nurture the caring communities emerging in this time as an essential resource to prevent the onset of a grief pandemic. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7940762/ /pubmed/33708148 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.638940 Text en Copyright © 2021 Weinstock, Dunda, Harrington and Nelson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Weinstock, Louis
Dunda, Dunja
Harrington, Hannah
Nelson, Hannah
It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title_full It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title_fullStr It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title_full_unstemmed It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title_short It's Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19
title_sort it's complicated—adolescent grief in the time of covid-19
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7940762/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33708148
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.638940
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