The National Archive of Grief Support Studies
The National Archive of Grief Support Studies(NAGSS) database provides bibliographical information and summaries of recent articles selected for their relevance to grief and bereavement service providers. The articles that are summarized are selected from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals and are intended to highlight key concepts as well as provide a brief statement of implications for service providers. Bibliographical information may be used to obtain the original article.
Predictors of Children’s Understandings of Death: Age, Cognitive Ability, Death Experience and Maternal Communicative Competence
Authors:
Hunter, Sally B.
Smith, Delores E.
Source:
Omega: 2008. Volume 57, Issue 2, pp. 143-162.
Summary
The article presents a study on how a child’s age, cognitive ability, and death experiences, as well as the mother’s ability to communicate about death, influenced the child’s understanding of death. The authors identified four components of death as essential to a full understanding of the concept of death: irreversibility, nonfunctionality, universality, and inevitability. Participants included 37 children between the ages of 48 months and 96 months and their mothers. The authors concluded that a child’s age, cognitive skills, and personal death experiences did contribute to an understanding of death, but that the mother’s ability to communicate about death did not have a significant impact.
Key words: child, cognitive, communciate, mother
Service Provider Implications
This article provides information for service providers regarding the impact that age, cognitive skills, and personal death experiences have on a child’s understanding of death.
