Risk and protective factors for bereavement adaptation: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Many people experience lifelong impacts after losing a loved one. Bereavement adaptation, which refers to how people adapt to changes after a death, is crucial for their subsequent life stages. Bereavement experienced during one's childhood or teenage years can be even more challenging, considering the dual burden of bereavement adaptation and developmental tasks. However, no review identifies the risk or protective factors relating to such bereavement adaptation from a lifespan perspective. This review will thus unpack the factors that influence one's long-term adaptation to the bereavement experienced during childhood. This review will identify the risk and protective factors affecting individual adaptation to bereavement experienced during childhood and adolescence within a four-domain framework: mental health, grief, developmental competence and others.

A systematic review and meta-analysis will be conducted based on the search from 24 February to 31 October 2025 in six databases: PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, MEDLINE and Scopus. Only those studies that have specified the risk and protective factors for the bereavement adaptation of children and adolescents will be included. This protocol will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols 2015 statement. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 statement, two independent reviewers will conduct the literature search, screening, inclusion and data extraction, and assess the risk of bias using the Risk of Bias 2 tool and Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. A third reviewer will perform the meta-analysis based on the data extracted by the first two reviewers. The effect sizes will be re-examined for each risk factor in the meta-analysis. A random-effects model will be employed to account for variability among studies. Heterogeneity will be assessed, and subgroup analyses will be performed. All the findings will be reported following the PRISMA 2020 statement.

Ethical approval is not required for this systematic review and meta-analysis. Only those studies with ethical approval will be included in this review. The results will be shared by being published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at academic conferences.

CRD420250641709.