ABSTRACT
Research on grief counseling and other general bereavement interventions demonstrates distressingly low efficacy (Jordan & McMenamy, 2004; Jordan & Neimeyer, 2003), and research on interventions specific to children also indicates surprisingly small effect sizes (Currier et al., 2007). Though possible reasons for these results may relate to research design (e.g., timing and length of intervention, participant selection), the ultimate result is little clarity about the forms of support that actually benefit bereaved children (Akerman & Statham, 2011). Research evidence does support the importance, though, of identifying high-risk subgroups of bereaved individuals, as studies indicate more intervention effectiveness with high-risk or high-distress mourners (Akerman & Statham, 2011; Jordan & McMenamy, 2004). Individuals bereaved through violent, unexpected, or untimely deaths are more likely to experience complicated grief reactions and are more likely to benefit from a structured intervention.
