The acquisition of a mature understanding of three components of the concept of death

Speece, Mark; Brent, Sandor B.

doi:10.1080/07481189208252571

Cited by 90 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Children transitioning to school would be starting to comprehend that death is the final and complete cessation of life. Speece and Brent (1992) reported similar findings. The older children would be going a step further by recognizing death as both universal and inevitable, therefore, also personal.…”

Section: Comparison With Previous Research On Children's Death-relatesupporting

confidence: 68%

Do Imaginary Companions Die? An Exploratory Study

Kastenbaum

Fox

2008

Omega (Westport)

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Adults in this exploratory study usually recalled that their childhood imaginary companions faded away or were dismissed as other options for social interaction became more appealing. However, eight participants reported that their IC had died. Analysis of these deaths offers a glimpse of the child's talent for transitional thought processes that navigate between the emerging constraints of logic and the continuing appeal of fantasy. It is suggested that young children are testing the limits and possibilities of what it means to be "real" at the same time they are trying to puzzle out "alive" and "dead."

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Section: Comparison With Previous Research On Children's Death-relatesupporting

confidence: 68%

Do Imaginary Companions Die? An Exploratory Study

Kastenbaum

Fox

2008

Omega (Westport)

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“…The other view of death has roots in religion or spirituality. Developmental research on children's understanding of death has tended to focus on children's biological understanding of death (e.g., Mahon, Goldberg, & Washington, ; Poling & Evans, ; Speece & Brent , ).…”

Section: Parent–child Communication About Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's Earliest Experiences with Death: Circumstances, Conversations, Explanations, and Parental Satisfaction

Renaud

Engarhos

Schleifer

et al. 2014

Infant and Child Development

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Parents (n = 140) of children 2 to 7 years responded to an online survey regarding their children's experiences and conversations about death. A total of 75% of parents indicated that they had spoken to their child about death, and the majority of conversations were first initiated when children were between 3 and 3.5 years of age. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to explore factors that could predict conversations about death. Parents (n = 88) provided narratives of the explanations of death that they gave their child and subsequently reported their level of satisfaction with their explanation. The content of the explanations was coded and examined in relation to children's age and parental satisfaction. Results revealed that parents who provided explanations to a continued existence after death reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction than those parents who discussed the absence of a future physical relationship after death. Finally, explanations of a continued existence were not always in reference to an afterlife and could include discussing the memory of the deceased or their continued impact even after death. Thus, when talking to young children about death, parents may feel greater satisfaction in finding ways to discuss the continued legacy of those who have died compared to more biological explanations.

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“…This latter body of literature has focused on the extent to which children construe death in terms of a larger, biological theory of the life cycle. Thus, it is argued that children come to grasp not just the universality and irreversibility of death (Speece & Brent, 1992); they also realize that the body consists of an integrated set of organs whose functioning is essential for life (Jaakola & Slaughter, 2002;Slaughter, Jaakola, & Carey, 1999;Slaughter & Lyons, 2003). On this biological conception, death implies a breakdown of the bodily "machine" and the comprehensive cessation of all processes.…”

Section: Developmental Psychology and The Biology Of Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Mortality and the Life of the Ancestors in Rural Madagascar

2008

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Across two studies, a wide age range of participants was interviewed about the nature of death. All participants were living in rural Madagascar in a community where ancestral beliefs and practices are widespread. In Study 1, children (8-17 years) and adults (19-71 years) were asked whether bodily and mental processes continue after death. The death in question was presented in the context of a narrative that focused either on the corpse or on the ancestral practices associated with the afterlife. Participants aged 8 years and older claimed that death brings an end to most bodily and mental processes. Nevertheless, particularly in the context of the religious narrative, they claimed that certain mental processes continue even after death. This assertion of an afterlife was more evident among adults than children, especially with respect to cognitive processes, such as knowing and remembering. In Study 2, 5-and 7-year-olds were asked similar questions in connection with the death of a bird and a person. Seven-year-olds consistently claimed that bodily and mental processes cease at death, whereas 5-year-olds were unsystematic in their replies. Together, the two studies replicate and extend findings obtained with Western children showing that, in the course of development, different conceptions of death are elaborated-a biological conception in which death terminates living processes and a religious conception in which death marks the beginning of a new form of spiritual existence.

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The acquisition of a mature understanding of three components of the concept of death

Cited by 90 publications

References 7 publications

Do Imaginary Companions Die? An Exploratory Study

Do Imaginary Companions Die? An Exploratory Study

Children's Earliest Experiences with Death: Circumstances, Conversations, Explanations, and Parental Satisfaction

Understanding Mortality and the Life of the Ancestors in Rural Madagascar

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