Last, year, when I began to think about my thesis for the M.S. in Psychology program at Walden, I knew that I wanted to pick a topic that I would find meaningful. After some consideration, I decided to research adolescent grief and bereavement, because the county where I live, in upstate Pennsylvania, had been wracked by a number of adolescent deaths and deaths that affected local adolescents.

Many of the adolescent deaths were associated primarily with automobile and ATV accidents. Several adolescents’ parents had died prematurely as well, mostly due to cancer, heart problems, and other diseases.

I realized, after personal involvement with one family that experienced such a loss, that there were few sources of support specifically targeted to grieving teens.

Adolescents experience grief in numerous distinct ways, a few of which I will mention here. Teens are moving through unique developmental crises revolving around determining one’s identity and developing the skills to form intimate relationships. These issues are significantly different from those experienced in adulthood, and the confidence and security in an adult’s sense of identity and intimacy allow the bereaved adult to approach grief from a much more self-confident perspective. Ultimately, the death of a loved one leaves an adolescent feeling isolated and different from his or her peers, at a time when blending in is of primary importance. 

Furthermore, the bereaved adult, having had a larger field of experience with intimate relationships, also approaches the loss with the knowledge that future opportunities for intimacy remain possible. An adolescent does not approach death with this same implicit guarantee. He or she may find it is a struggle to develop relationships of depth in the future, since one of the most significant relationships of his or her life was abruptly cut short. Teens who lose a parent may require further attention and support from the adults with whom they interact.

My thesis was titled Understanding and Addressing Adolescent Grief and Bereavement, and I found the writing and researching of the paper to be both enlightening and disturbing. I found the ramifications of inadequately addressed adolescent grief to be significant, and I knew from both personal experience, and through my association with a local hospice organization (where I am grief counselor), that existing efforts were not meeting the needs.

To fill this unmet need, I decided to rewrite my thesis in a more accessible form—as a book—based on the premise that teachers can be an excellent first line of support for grieving adolescents because of their repeated and prolonged contact with the teens in need.

In conjunction with this project, I created a PowerPoint presentation to give at local schools during teachers’ in-service (professional development) days. The presentation educates teachers about various aspects of adolescent grief and bereavement and suggests practical ways they can assist in alleviating some of the isolation and pain associated with this traumatic experience.

The response to my presentation has been excellent. The first school I approached has already accepted my presentation as part of its strategic plan for the upcoming school year, and I was recently invited to share the program at a meeting of guidance counselors from various schools in the area. Their response was encouraging as well. Each guidance counselor was eager to engage the support of his or her respective teaching staff in dealing with this issue, and it appears that all of the local schools represented may be implementing the program into their in-service schedule over the next two years.

My manuscript, Understanding and Addressing Adolescent Grief and Bereavement: A Guide for Teachers, is now moving through the editing process. I hope to find a publisher in the coming year so that this concept can influence a greater audience than I would be able to reach solely through first-person presentations.

I believe in the desire of teachers to help the adolescents with whom they spend their time, and by providing this program, I hope to give them the tools they need to accomplish this goal. I feel passionately that teachers are a significant resource in reaching grieving teens, and I hope that this project will help to empower teachers as they face this heartbreaking yet ever-present facet of education.

Amy Logsdon recently completed an M.S. in Psychology at Walden. She is the grief counselor for Guthrie Hospice of Towanda, Penn. For more information about Logsdon’s PowerPoint presentation or her book, send her an email at logsdon@epix.net.

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