Caregivers' estimations of their children's perceptions of death as a biological concept

Death Stud. 2013 Sep;37(8):693-703. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2012.692454.

Abstract

Communication about death is often a sensitive topic in families with children. The present studied compared answers of 141 school children aged 5-7 to questions about death, and their caregivers' predictions. Children were interviewed, and caregivers answered on paper, questions on inevitability, applicability, irreversibility, cessation, causation, and personal mortality. For causation, cessation, and irreversibility, children were significantly more correct than caregivers expected, and girls were more correct on applicability. Communicating with children about death may not always be as caregivers expect.

MeSH terms

  • Attitude to Death*
  • Caregivers / psychology*
  • Child
  • Child Behavior / psychology*
  • Cognition
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male
  • Peer Group
  • Perception*