ABSTRACT
Research that correlates reactions to trauma with grief responses will be reviewed in this chapter. Some of this information will be original data from the author’s ongoing studies at Ursinus College on this topic. The ACEs study will be discussed, as well as its relation to a child’s perception of the loss of a loved one. Reactions to trauma will include those that are expressed at the time of the loss, as well as those that occur later at various developmental stages and at varying intervals after the death. Individual differences, including ones dictated by society’s standards (including gender-specific responses) are also important to consider. Reactions such as anxiety, depression, optimism/pessimism, locus of control, attachment to others, and hypochondria were researched in the Ursinus study, and these results will be described. Trauma and loss that generate a traumatic reaction can cause the individual to be hypervigilant. Remaining in fight-or-flight mode for long periods is not conducive to learning; school struggles, including lowered school performance, can result. Information will be presented indicating that trauma is subjective, and an event considered by some to be merely stressful may be viewed as traumatic by a young person.
