TITLE:
Treating Complicated Grief among Orphaned Children in Kenya: Effectiveness of Complicated Grief Therapy
AUTHORS:
Maureen O. Ngesa, Sylvia Tuikong, Kennedy Ongaro
KEYWORDS:
Complicated Grief, Orphaned Children, Complicated Grief Therapy, Bereaved Children, Parental Death
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
24,
2020
ABSTRACT: Complicated Grief (CG) also referred to as complicated
bereavement is a clinically significant condition even though there is limited
evidence on its prevalence and treatment in Kenya and Africa in general. The
main aim of this 2019 study was to test the efficacy of a modified Complicated
Grief Therapy (CGT) in treating complicated grief (CG) among orphaned children.
A total of 426 orphaned children aged 10 - 15 years were screened using the Brief Grief Questionnaire to sample
those with elevated grief scores. Of the 263 who met the criteria, only 241
participants fully participated in the six months study with 123 and 118
participants in the treatment and the control groups respectively. The
treatment group was subjected to a shortened version of the CGT (12 weeks)
while no treatment was offered to the control group. The prevalence of grief
among orphaned children was 66% and using the Inventory for Complicated Grief,
to determine the clinical levels, a mean grief score of 31.6 (SD = 9.52) was
recorded. The reduced version of CGT was effective in the reduction of
complicated grief symptoms t(122) = -15.79, p at a weekly reduction of 1.29 points. In the case of the control group,
the paired sample test showed a statistically insignificant reduction of CG
score, t(117) = -0.712, p =
0.478. Conclusions: Reducing CGT sessions 12 sessions to make it shorter and
less stringent and using it as group therapy in a school setup did not
interfere with its effect on the treatment of complicated grief among orphaned
children.