Children's Conceptions of Death

Bill Elsom · Richard S. Prawat

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Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning Child and Animal Learning Development Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion

Abstract

WHITE, EDWARD; ELSOM, BILL; and PRAWAT, RICHARD. Children's Conceptions of Death. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 307-310. This study investigated children's conceptions of death from a developmental perspective. Kindergarten through fourth graders (N = 170) were tested for conservation and then interviewed following the presentation of a story about an elderly woman's death, in an attempt to assess children's understanding of 3 concepts: irrevocability, cessation of bodily processes, and universality. 2 story versions were used, 1 depicting the woman as a nice person, the other as an unkind person. In the major finding, understanding of universality, but not understanding of the irrevocability of death and cessation of bodily processes, was significantly related to the child's level of cognitive development. The variable relating to the attractiveness of the story character significantly affected children's responses regarding cause of death.

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References

1962Thought and language 1948The Child's Theories concerning Death 1968EARLY EDUCATION: A COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL VIEW 1975Early Conceptions of Positive Justice as Related to the Development of Logical Operations

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2005Young children's understanding of death 2002Childhood Traumatic Grief 1980Children's Conceptions of the Causes of Illness: Understanding of Contagion and Use of Immanent Justice 2012Exploring Children's Understanding of Death: Through Drawings and the Death Concept Questionnaire 1985The development of the concept of death in children aged 5–9 years 1990Children's Death Concepts: Relationship to Cognitive Functioning, Age, Experience With Death, Fear of Death, and Hopelessness 1991The Development of the Subconcepts of Death in Young Children: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study 1981Children's conceptions of death

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