Using 'which' in relation to a sentence

Question

I have a sentence, as following:

Obwohl sie schikaniert wurden, hätten die jungen Kinder, mit denen ich arbeite, freundlicher sein können, wenn sie mehr mit ihren hilfsbereiten Eltern gesprochen hätten.

Although they used to be bullied, the young children, with whom I work, could have been friendlier if they had spoken more to their helpful parents.

But was unsure on how to say 'which' in relation to the sentence, as in:

Although they used to be bullied, the young children, with whom I work, could have been friendlier if they had spoken more to their helpful parents, which I find sad

Would you use:

... das ich traurig finde

Or is there another way?

Answer 1

In this case it must be

..., was ich traurig finde.

The reason is that there has not been an established entity to which the "das" could refer. Instead, you need a word that refers to the previously expressed fact AND establishes it as a constituent. That's when you need "was" (or the wo-words, same logic). For a more detailed discussion take a loot at this article on my blog (second half).

Answer 2

The relative pronoun "which" can be used with reference to a sentence. The corresponding German relative pronoun is "was". Example: Er ist arbeitslos, was ihm schwer zu schaffen macht." This might be derived from a second sentence: Das ist etwas, das ihm zu schaffen macht/ etwas, was ihm zu schaffen macht.