“It was weird coming back to school, difficult…” to be a teenager in primary school after the loss of a parent

• Main Authors: Þorgeirsdóttir, Heiður Ósk, Elídóttir, Jórunn
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2022
• Subjects: parental loss; grieving process; adolescence; primary school; support; trauma policy; foreldramissir; sorgarferlið; unglingar; grunnskóli; stuðningur; áfallaáætlun; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/3649

When a child or a teenager loses his or her parents, their whole world changes and a variety of challenges arise that the child or teenager must deal with. There has been relatively little research in Iceland on the impact of parental loss on children and adolescents and how the school approaches it when students face a new reality after the loss, but every year a considerable number of children in primary school lose at least one parent. The role of the school is important in this context and the school and its staff need to be able to respond correctly when students experience the trauma of losing a parent.The aim of this research was to examine individuals’ experience of elementary school after parental loss. The impact of parental loss on individuals and their schooling was examined by seeking answers to whether and what kind of support the individuals received as they returned to school after the loss. The research was conducted in 2019– 2020 and a qualitative research method was used for data gathering and processing in which individual interviews were conducted with six individuals over the age of 18 who had experienced parental loss during adolescence, i.e., when aged 12–16.The main findings showed that the individuals’ experience from school was difficult as the impact of the parental loss on their lives was significant. The individuals experienced a great deal of anger and diminished interest in academic learning. They related that the understanding they received of their bereavement and the support they had within the school was limited, at the same time as the educational requirements they had to meet were lowered. Due to that, the individuals felt isolated and lonely, which resulted in them having a harder time coping with their education. From these findings, it can be concluded that support for students who have suffered a parental loss could be better, more organized and personal, and that there is a need for increased understanding of the long and difficult process that follows a parental death. ...