"Ask us anything": A framework for understanding bereaved children's questions about illness, dying, and grief

Grieving children may wonder about questions of illness, dying, and death as they navigate the death of, or grief for, someone who matters to them. Parents and caregivers, as well as health and psychosocial clinicians frequently report feeling uncertain and unprepared to engage in these conversations even if they are aware of their helpfulness. Interested in examining the questions bereaved children wonder about, this study analyzed 710 anonymous questions submitted by children aged 5-17 during Ask Us Anything sessions at a bereavement camp in Ontario, Canada between 2009 and 2024. Through an iterative, collaborative process of thematic analysis, this interdisciplinary team constructed a two-dimensional framework to organize grieving children's concerns according to the focus and function of the question being asked. Question focuses (i.e., what it says about the core topic) spanned across: Body, Condition, Dying and Death, Grief, while question functions (i.e., what it says about what the person seeks to understand about the topic) spanned: How it Works, Catch, Cause, Cure, Care, Connect. Question foci and functions were overlaid to form a four-by-six matrix. Adjacent to this matrix were also two self-contained focus categories identifying Existential and Personal/Relational dimensions of bereaved children's questions. Children's questions can be helpful windows into what their grief experiences are like and what their emotional, existential, and/or informational needs are within this experience. By showcasing the layers of bereaved children's questions, this study contributes to advancing knowledge about the depth and breadth of children's curiosities in relation to grief. Further, the resulting framework is proposed as a tool that can foster greater death and grief literacy by guiding caring adults in inviting, anticipating, exploring, and responding to bereaved children's questions and the needs embedded within them.