Purpose
The study investigates how palliative healthcare professionals and kindergarten teachers support young children aged 1-6 years as they prepare for and grieve the loss of a parent.
The research questions are:
- In what ways do palliative healthcare professionals and kindergarten teachers interact with children to create meaning around parental death, and what resources do they use in their approaches to meaning-making?
- How do these professionals’ meaning-making work impact children’s opportunities to participate in and across everyday life situations when a parent is seriously ill and dies?
Result
The study concludes that there are three main ways palliative healthcare professionals and kindergarten teachers interact with kindergarten children: conversations in arranged meetings with several participants involved, conversations in meetings involving dying or deceased bodies, and therapeutic and psychological conversations. The study shows that the professionals influence children’s opportunities to participate in everyday life quite differently, and this is likely related to their respective roles. Healthcare professionals engage in meaningful conversations that focus on death as a biological phenomenon, as well as the biomedical process associated with dying. Kindergarten teachers primarily participate in meaningful dialogues that focus on the emotional and rational aspects of the parents’ passing.
Design
The study is based on a two-phase interview study involving a total of 11 palliative healthcare professionals and 18 kindergarten teachers. The data from the interview study were then analysed using comparative analysis.
References
Hogstad, I., & Jansen, A. (2023). Parental death in young children’s lives: health professionals’ and kindergarten teachers’ contributions in meaning-making. Early Years, 43(1), 166–181.
Online year: 2021
Issue year: 2023
Review year: 2023