November is Children's Grief Awareness Month

November began with a beautiful day on the east coast. And it also brought Children's Grief Awareness Month. In honor of this month, I wanted to share some new statistics about children's grief, courtesy of the JAG Institute at Judi's House in Denver, Colorado.

One in 14 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 18, which means that 5.3 million children are impacted by this significant loss. By the age of 25, that number more than doubles to 13.3 million. So the likelihood that you, or someone you know, has experienced the death of an immediate family member is very real. The highest rate of children's grief is in West Virginia, at 11.5% by the age of 18. The lowest rate continues to be in California at 5.6%.

For people under 24 years old, the leading cause of death is accidents (including drug overdose, car crashes and other accidents). After accidents, conditions related to birth and suicide are the top three causes of death. In people ages 25-60, cancer is the leading cause of death. After that, heart disease and accidents are the top second and third leading causes of death.

Why is all of this information important? Because the death of a parent or sibling in childhood has the potential to derail youth development. Lack of access to financial resources, healthy, stable caregivers and job stability are all secondary losses associated with childhood bereavement. Providing information about the potential impacts of childhood bereavement can help the field to create preventative and protective resources for all grieving children.