Grief and loss manifest differently across age groups. While adult grief is often overt and recognizable, children, youth, and adolescents may present symptoms resembling developmental challenges or behavior concerns, including patterns commonly associated with oppositional behaviors, as referenced in standard diagnostic frameworks.
Commonly Missed Sources of Loss in Children
Children’s grief is not always tied to death. They may grieve the loss of a friend moving away, the loss of family security, or even the loss of a beloved pet or toy. These experiences often go unrecognized because they differ from conventional perceptions of loss. Younger children, especially those under seven, often lack the vocabulary to express their distress, making their signs of grief harder to identify and often misinterpreted.
Ambiguous Loss
Ambiguous loss occurs when the sense of loss is unclear. This type of grief can arise when a person’s physical presence remains, but the personal connection is severed, or vice versa. Children may experience ambiguous loss due to situations such as:
- Foster care, kinship care, or adoption
- Parental incarceration
- Family experiences of miscarriage or infant loss
- Family separation Missing people or running away pets
- Parental disengagement due to addictions, overuse of digital media, or overwork
- Disruptions during health-related events, such as missed celebrations