Development and evaluation of a mobile app to provide bereavement support for teenagers in grief

Each year, more than 4000 children under the age of 18 lose a parent or sibling in fatal causes in Sweden.

The loss of a family member increases the risk of psychosocial and mental health problems; for example, these young bereaved are more often hospitalized due to substance abuse and/or psychiatric suffering and appear more frequently in the penitentiary register for criminal convictions compared to young non-bereaved.

They even have a severely elevated risk of dying at a young age. These negative consequences stresses the urgency of developing preventive measures.

To date, however, evaluated support interventions directed to bereaved teenagers are few.The overall purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate a cost-effective intervention, through a mobile app, with the goal of increasing psychosocial grief support and promote psychosocial well-being among bereaved youth.

The project has been developed in collaboration with Randiga Huset, a non-profit organisation for children in grief. A user group of bereaved teenagers will act as research partners throughout the research process.

After the mobile app has been developed, the feasibility of the intervention will be evaluated in a pilot study and thereafter be examined in regard of its effectiveness on bereaved teenagers’ psychosocial well-being and grief through a randomised controlled trial.

Once the app has been evaluated and adjusted to reach its full potential Randiga Huset will implement the app in their organisation.There are great potential benefits for both individual young mourners and society of finding ways to help and support grieving teenagers with digital resources, which are easily accessible.

The project has the potential to advance bereavement care for bereaved teenagers, and importantly to significantly improve the psychological well-being of bereaved teenagers and decrease the long-term negative consequences associated with childhood bereavement.