Introduction
Adolescents who lose siblings through traumatic incidents have a higher risk of becoming depressed. Typical forms of adolescent grief include sadness, crying, longing, and guilt. Depending on the state of trauma, bereaved teenagers may experience a range of emotions. For example, if a sibling committed suicide, the bereaved may experience shock, anger, anxiety, and self-blame than if the sibling died of a natural death. Studies show that the severity of adolescents ‘ depression is significantly dependent on the strength of their relationship with the lost sibling, their gender, and other family-related factors.
This study aims to prove that a sibling’s traumatic loss can lead to depression in adolescents. This research employs the literature review method, focusing on selected studies related to the topic published within the past five years. The analysis involves the investigation of signs and behaviors that reveal depression and the factors that may lead to depression. The study findings indicate that traumatic sibling loss is a risk factor for triggering depression in adolescents.
Depressed Signs and Behaviors
Experiencing the loss of a sibling is stressful and could be detrimental for adolescents, especially in traumatic loss incidents. People of a younger age may find it challenging to cope with the loss of a close or loved one (Rostila et al., 2019). Depending on the strength of the relationship, the adolescents may experience varying emotions, which could affect their mental health.
According to Andriessen et al. (2020), most adolescents will likely have mental health-related problems upon experiencing the loss of any family member. Homicides, accidents, and suicides, among others, cause the most traumatic losses. According to Rostila et al. (2019), adolescents react or respond to such a traumatic loss through crying, feelings of guilt and sadness, shock, anxiety, anger, and self-blame. In worse conditions, the bereaved may become depressed, forcing themselves to isolate themselves from the rest of the world (Andriessen et al., 2020).
Andriessen et al. (2020) conducted a study to determine the impact of sibling loss through suicide in adolescents, provided that adolescents grieve such losses by asking ‘why.’ Furthermore, adolescents suffering traumatic losses such as suicide have an increased risk of falling into depression, PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. These young adults may often prefer to remain quiet and alone.
Several behaviors are critical to highlighting the possibilities of depression in grieving adolescents. According to Andriessen et al. (2020), adolescents who lost their sibling may stay awake for long hours or grow sleepy, become agitated, irritable, excessively cry, and isolate. The young adult may also become less interested in daily activities, such as attending school or participating in family meals. Study shows that adolescents suffer more from sibling loss because they lack the experience and do not know how to handle the grief (Andriessen et al., 2020).
One parent participating in Andriessen et al. (2020)study explained her adolescent daughter’s behavior after losing her sibling. She said, “She’s a very high-functioning depressed young lady. She does what she has to do, and then she comes home, walks in the door, and goes to bed. Then she sort of started binge eating and stuff like that” (Andriessen et al., 2020). Although such behaviors may vary from teenager to teenager, it is easy to tell if one is depressed. Additionally, the grief period varies with the relationship the bereaved had with the dead, among other factors.
Factors Leading to Depression
One of the factors that could determine whether a grieving adolescent develops depression is the size of the sibling group. Study reveals that adolescents’ grief level depends on the quality of remaining relationships and emotional support (Andriessen et al., 2020). Adolescents in small sibling groups may suffer more from the loss of one sibling than those in large sibling groups.
A study by Rostila et al. (2019) indicates that an adolescent who loses their only sibling is more likely to fall into depression compared to one with two or three remaining. Sibling relationships and closeness are crucial factors that influence the severity of grief in bereaved individuals (Andriessen et al., 2020). For siblings who have been close and do most activities together, the loss may trigger more than depression in the bereaved adolescent. Victims of sibling loss from small sibling groups experience worse grief due to inadequate emotional support (Andriessen et al., 2020). When a family loses a sibling, parents and other members enter a mourning mood and may not offer needed support to the adolescents; this could be a depression-triggering factor leading to isolation and abandonment.
Gender is another factor contributing to depression in adolescents who experience the traumatic loss of a sibling. Based on whether the affected is a male or female, their possibility of developing depression varies with vulnerability and resilience. Rostila et al. (2019) mention that female adolescents who lose sisters or brothers through traumatic events are more vulnerable to an emotional breakdown. They are likelier to cry, experience sadness, and guilt than males (Rostila et al., 2019). However, females are better equipped to deal with grief from a young age than men. Consequently, female adolescents are not likely to fall into severe mental health problems such as depression and PTSD (Rostila et al., 2019).
On the other hand, young bereaved males have a low level of resilience, and although they may not easily break down, they may go into depression when they do. Studies show that male adolescents who lose their close siblings may experience guilt and self-blame, become depressed, and are likely suicidal (Rostila et al., 2019). These young adults may also suffer from other mental health diseases than depression.
Family Functionality Before and After the Loss
The functionality of the bereaved family before and after the loss of a sibling may contribute to adolescent depression. Family dysfunctions, including conflict, parental separation, and divorce, may worsen the grieving process. According to Andriessen et al. (2020), most parents are likely to experience conflict and sometimes separate after losing a child due to blaming.
If the family were not united before the loss, it would likely scatter during the mourning process. The study has shown that sibling loss can be more detrimental for adolescents between 13 and 15 years old (Rostila et al., 2019). The severity is explained by their mood swings and emotional disruptions during adolescence. Henceforth, they are highly likely to become depressed if they are in troubled families.
When a sibling loses a sibling, they require additional emotional support that may be lacking in dysfunctional families. According to Rose-Clarke et al. (2021), parents may react differently to the loss of a child, which may have a critical effect on adolescents. Parents may use substances and engage in criminal activities to cope with losing a child. Such behaviors, whether present before or after the loss, may interfere with the family’s grief process.
Rostila et al. (2019) show that parents who assume the wrong mourning ways may fail to support their teenagers. Adolescents, especially those under 15 years old, have limited knowledge about coping with loss (Rose-Clarke et al., 2021). They may not know how to continue their lives, so they need parental support. Therefore, without the required emotional or psychological support, adolescents may fall into depression.
A sibling’s traumatic loss and lack of family support could lead to long-term psychological scars. Long-term or untreated depression becomes a severe mental health problem and can lead to risky behaviors such as drug use and alcohol addiction(Rose-Clarke et al., 2021). Depressed adolescents could also have unstable relationships with other siblings and schoolmates.
The study by Rose-Clarke et al. (2021) demonstrated that adolescents who had lost a sibling sought to be viewed the same by their schoolmates and friends. However, such events force the sympathizers to view the victim differently. Consequently, resisting such sympathy could cause isolation and aggression, leading to depression and self-harm (Andriessen et al., 2020). Therefore, providing sufficient emotional support to adolescents is crucial for a swift recovery.
Conclusion
Evidence-based studies have proven that losing a sibling through traumatic occurrences could lead to depression among adolescents. The affected group shows signs of depression through anger, agitation, sadness, and isolation. The bereaved may also withdraw from essential activities, thus becoming depressed.
Some social factors, such as relationships with the dead, sex, and family functionality, highly influence the possibility of adolescents becoming depressed. Adolescents between 13 and 15 years are likely to experience mental health crises upon losing their siblings because they lack such experiences, yet have become attached to the dead. In such cases, this group of bereaved needs extra support from family, and the absence of such support could make depression worse.
References
Andriessen, K., Krysinska, K., Rickwood, D., & Pirkis, J. (2020). “It changes your orbit“: The impact of suicide and traumatic death on adolescents as experienced by adolescents and parents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(24), 9356.
Rose-Clarke, K., Hassan, E., Prakash, B. K., Magar, J., Devakumar, D., Luitel, N. P., & Kohrt, B. A. (2021). A cross-cultural interpersonal model of adolescent depression: A qualitative study in rural Nepal. Social Science & Medicine, 270, 113623.
Rostila, M., Berg, L., Saarela, J., Kawachi, I., & Hjern, A. (2019). Experience of sibling death in childhood and risk of psychiatric care in adulthood: A national cohort study from Sweden. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 1581-1588.