A Bereavement Intervention for Parents Following the Sudden, Violent Deaths of Their 12-28-Year-Old Children: Description and Applications to Clinical Practice

Abstract

This report describes a randomized clinical trial with a longitudinal design involving parents bereaved by the violent deaths of their 12-28-year-old children, with a view to applying selected components of the study to clinical practice. Parents of children who died in the previous two to seven months by accident, homicide, or suicide were identified through the death certificates of the children. Of the 261 parents recruited and randomized to intervention and control conditions, 171 were mothers and 90 were fathers.