Examples Of Life Cycle Impact Paper

Life Cycle Impact Paper
Amy Warr
For
Cynthia Reynolds
SWK 305 (Human Behavior in the Social Environment)
SWK Lansing 11
March 2, 2017

Grief and Loss in Middle Childhood
“There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.” ~ Henry Wordsworth One certainty in this life is that of sorrow. If we are to experience love, then there will surely come a time that we will experience a loss of love and with it a broken heart. The grief process has been studied extensively with many theories proposed. The study of childhood grief and loss has seen some differing opinions regarding a child’s capability to fully understand and process death. For the purpose of this paper, we will discuss developmental theories on middle childhood, apply
The first task undertaken requires the child to adjust from a physical life with their sibling to that of memories of their sibling. The second task involves the survivor adjusting to their new world without their sibling and understanding the permanence of this adjustment. The final task of this grieving process is the formation of new relationships. This final task is not to replace the deceased sibling, but to move on in a world without them (p. 444).
Per Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, middle childhood (or those in the concrete operational stage) would be the first group that would be able to complete this grieving task list. The mental adjustments that are required would involve an abstract thinking that younger children, still in the preoperational stage, could not yet grasp. Erikson’s industry vs inferiority is also seen with those in middle childhood dealing with the loss of a sibling. An example given of this crisis by Machajewski and Kronk (2013), “The death of a sibling will make a child of this age different than a peer, causing a sense of inferiority.” (p. 447) Clearly this will cause more stress for the surviving sibling as the main goal of the industry vs inferiority stage is to “fit in” to one’s peer
“Children’s immediate caregiving environments may either facilitate, or inhibit, their ability to engage in adaptive grief processes” (Shapiro et. al, 2014, p. 172). These findings are in line with Ecological Systems theory. Where the child experiencing grief is at the center of the environment, the child’s Microsystem (family, peers, school) will have the strongest impact on them. While the other systems- Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem- still have some impact on the child’s life the Microsystem will serve as a buffer to these outer systems. It is important that the surviving parent has open and supportive communication with the grieving child. “Mothers with depression, in general, have been found to use a more negative and detached parenting style than nondepressed mothers, and these communication patterns can lead to symptom expression in children” (Shapiro et. al, 2014). While this finding applies to all children and mothers, this pattern would be even more profound within a grieving family. It is imperative that a clinician working with a grieving child also assess the parent’s psychological state, as parental engagement will be a powerful tool in working through the grief process (Shapiro et. al,