Abstract â–¡ 141

introduction This paper presents the results of a survey undertaking in an Irish environment for the first time exploring the issues of grief through the child's eyes. It is suggested that children have the capacity to complete a mourning process by the age of 4years. (Furman, 1993). Parents inform professionals of how they perceive their child's feelings following the death of a loved one. The aim of this survey was to explore children's concepts with reference to the death of their sibling. Factors relating to bereavement are the child's age at the time of death, explanations and grieving responses of the parents.

Methodology The study was conducted in the Eastern Health Board Area from October 1998 to December 1998. In total the sample size was 29 families. Unfortunately, six of those families had moved and was not contactable. The other 23 families were invited to participate in the research. Twenty families responded wishing to participate immediately, with two families wishing to participate at a later date. One family refused. This yielded a high response rate with 37 children in total participating with their parents consent. Interviews were conducted by a bereavement professional with the children in their own homes whose siblings had died in the past year. Children were directly interviewed as opposed to obtaining anecdotal information from their parents. Parents were also requested to complete a questionnaire about their own perception of their children's reactions.

Results Comparisons were made between the parents perception of how the child felt and what the child actually stated themselves about how they felt. There was considerable differences. Specifically children recalled a different story to how they were told about their child's death in comparison to how the parents felt they were told. Children expressed feelings regarding how they felt when they saw their siblings body, once again different to how the parents perceived they felt. Both parents and children differed in how they perceived their roles at the time of the funeral. Information was also obtained about how the death of a sibling affected their school relationships.

Conclusion It is interesting to note that parents perceive their children's reactions as being totally different to how the child perceives them. It is also of value to have pertinent information which clearly shows the characteristics of the course of grief for these children.