This article examines the comparative prevalence of grief reactions, behavioral symptoms and 'pathological bereavement' in 25 kibbutz and 21 non-kibbutz children aged between 3 1/2 and 11 1/2 yr eighteen months after the death of the father in war. The findings indicate that in both kibbutz and urban settings the loss of a father becomes a serious traumatic situation for a large proportion of the children, influencing multiple areas of functioning and causing manifold behavioral symptoms. The particular differences regarding the quality of the reactive symptoms exhibited by kibbutz and non-kibbutz children appear to be related to the different sociocultural surrounding influences.