For adolescents faced with many developmental tasks, a loved one's death by suicide is a tragic event linked with increased morbidity, death fears, and psychopathology. Adolescents struggle to master tasks such as refining abstract thought, achieving independence, developing values, exploring intimacy in social and sexual relations, and becoming the person one wants to be. Bereavement after suicide confronts the adolescent with the reality of death and with the need to decide if life is worth living without the loved one. Bereaved adolescents are a population in need of counseling. Unresolved bereavement may be one factor leading to adolescent suicide. Adolescent survivors of suicidal death learn that death is permanent, suicide is possible, and they did not prevent the suicide. Links between bereavement after suicide, development, and adolescent suicide require further study. Inconsistent definitions of adolescence, samples of adolescents in psychotherapy, and other methodological problems limit the understanding of how adolescents cope with bereavement after suicide. Conclusions based on bereaved adolescents in therapy should not be misinterpreted as data about normal bereavement. (Author)