A psychosocial exploration of bereaved children’s experiences of exclusion from school: what understanding can be gained from a psychoanalytic perspective?

According to the Childhood Bereavement network, a parent dies every 22 minutes in the U.K. Despite this, there is little research into the impact of parental death on children and young people. This psychosocial study explores the experiences of children and young people who have been bereaved of a parent and who are subsequently excluded from school. Three participants of school age were interviewed about their experiences of these two events and the data obtained from the interviews was analysed using an individual, psychoanalytically informed case study approach, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the affect generated by the existence of dynamic, intersubjective, unconscious processes during the interviews. The data emerging from the transference and counter transference was explored and it was found that the ongoing presence of an attachment figure might mitigate some of the risk factors associated with the experience of parental death. It also seems possible that this population of children and young people are likely to be under identified in schools and when they are known to have experienced parental bereavement, school professionals struggle to understand and respond to their emotional needs. Consideration is given to the implications for the role of the Educational Psychologist in working with this vulnerable population of children and young people. The wider potential of psychoanalytically informed approaches to working with pupils and staff in schools is also considered.