How do young children keep a bond with a parent who has died? Finnish researchers looked at a grief camp where children meet others in the same situation.
What was studied
The study was about young children who had lost a parent and were at a camp where they got support from other children. The researchers observed what the children did there (observational data). They used a phenomenological approach: they want to understand how children experience it themselves, and what role the body and objects play. How many children took part and their exact ages are not given in the abstract.
What came out of it
Children kept the bond alive through different forms of remembering. They told stories around photos and kept objects. They also did things together: playing, drawing and making music. This let them recall what the dead parent meant to them and notice what had changed in their relationships.
The authors conclude that for young children the body is an important place of knowing and remembering. Concrete things matter here: objects, special moments and places the child shared with the dead parent.
How strong is this
This is a qualitative study in one kind of setting, a grief camp. It shows which forms of staying connected can be seen, but not how often they occur and not whether they help the child. No effect was measured, and there is no comparison with children who were not at a camp. The camp is also a special setting: every child there has lost a parent. This summary is based on the abstract; the full text was not accessible when it was written.
What this means for practice
- Make room for photos, objects and places linked to the dead parent, and let the child tell about them.
- Offer more than talking: play, drawing and music let the body take part.
- See this as a description of what children do, not a proven method. Look at what fits this child.
Read the article (open access, DOI)
Source
Poulter, S., Pursi, A., & Lipponen, L. (2026). Maintaining continuing bonds through body memory in cases of early parental bereavement. Death Studies, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2026.2758271