Kinderen die jong hun ouders verliezen

Vanuit systemisch perspectief is al heel lang bekend dat je, bij ‘niet genomen’ rouw een trek naar de dood kunt ontwikkelen. Je wilt bij degene zijn waar je zoveel van houdt, zelfs als dat betekent dat je hem of haar moet volgen in de dood. Dit is een onbewust proces. Het is belangrijk om naast psychologische rouwverwerking ook dit systemische aspect mee te nemen in de begeleiding van kinderen. En ook ouders zijn kinderen….ook zij dragen vaak deze dynamiek nog bij zich. Dat kan zich ook uiten in bijvoorbeeld depressiviteit.
Lees hieronder het artikel met het onderzoek.

Door: Marianne Langemeijer
Praktijk: Praktijk voor Kwaliteitsopvoeding


Het artikel in: NU.nl

Gepubliceerd: 12 november 2015 13:21

Kinderen die op jonge leeftijd hun ouders verliezen, zouden vaker zelfmoord plegen dan kinderen wier ouders op latere leeftijd komen te overlijden.

Onderzoekers van de Deense universiteit in Aarhus vergeleken de cijfers van 7,3 miljoen kinderen uit Denemarken, Zweden en Finland.

Een groep van 189.094 kinderen verloor ouders voor hun achttiende, die cijfers werden vergeleken met 1,8 miljoen kinderen waarvan de ouders wel nog leefden. De groepen werden veertig jaar lang gevolgd.

Andere factoren

De kinderen die achttien jaar of jonger waren toen hun ouders overleden pleegden twee keer zo vaak zelfmoord als de controlegroep. De onderzoekers keken niet naar andere factoren als vriendschappen, genen en de leefstijl van de familie, maar enkel naar de sterftecijfers.

Zo’n vier procent van alle kinderen in westerse landen verliest de ouders voor hun achttiende.

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BRON

Original Investigation | November 11, 2015

Incidence of Suicide Among Persons Who Had a Parent Who Died During Their ChildhoodA Population-Based Cohort Study ONLINE FIRST

Mai-Britt Guldin, PhD1; Jiong Li, PhD2; Henrik Søndergaard Pedersen, MSc1,3; Carsten Obel, PhD3,4; Esben Agerbo, PhD5; Mika Gissler, PhD6,7; Sven Cnattingius, PhD8; Jørn Olsen, PhD2; Mogens Vestergaard, PhD1,3

[+] Author Affiliations

JAMA Psychiatry. Published online November 11, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2094

Importance  Parental death from suicide is associated with increased risk of suicide in the bereaved child, but little is known about the long-term risks of suicide after parental death from other causes. A better understanding of this association may improve suicide prevention efforts.

Objective  To examine the long-term risks of suicide after parental death and how the risk trajectories differed by cause of parental death while accounting for major potential confounding variables.

Design, Setting, and Participants  A population-based matched cohort study was performed using information from nationwide registers (data from 1968 to 2008) in 3 Scandinavian countries (for a total of 7 302 033 persons). We identified 189 094 children (2.6%) who had a parent who died before the child reached 18 years of age (ie, the bereaved cohort). Each bereaved child was matched by sex and age to 10 children who did not have a parent who died before they reached 18 years of age (for a total of 1 890 940 children) (ie, the reference cohort). Both cohorts were followed for up to 40 years. Poisson regression was used to calculate the incidence rate ratio (IRR), while accounting for age at parental death, sex, time since bereavement, maternal/paternal death, birth order, family history of psychiatric illness, and socioeconomic status. Data analyses were finalized June 24, 2015.

Exposure  The main exposure was death of a parent within the first 18 years of life.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Incidence of suicide among persons who had a parent who died during their childhood.

Results  During follow-up, 265 bereaved persons (0.14%) and 1342 nonbereaved persons (0.07%) died of suicide (IRR = 2.02 [95% CI, 1.75-2.34]); IRR = 3.44 (95% CI, 2.61-4.52) for children who had a parent who died of suicide, and IRR = 1.76 (95% CI, 1.49-2.09) for children who had a parent who died of other causes. The IRR tended to be higher for children who had a parent who died before they reached 6 years of age, and the IRR remained high for at least 25 years. During 25 years of follow-up, the absolute risk of suicide was 4 in 1000 persons for boys who experienced parental death and 2 in 1000 persons for girls who experienced parental death.

Conclusions and Relevance  Parental death in childhood is, irrespective of cause, associated with an increased long-term risk of suicide. The consequences of parental death in childhood are far-reaching, and suicide risk trajectories may be influenced by early-life conditions. Future public health efforts should consider helping highly distressed children to cope with bereavement.