Young children's death concepts revisited

One hundred forty-one children, ages three to seven, were interviewed and presented with different play situations to assess their death concepts. Chi-square analysis and post hoc pairwise contrasts tests were used to examine differences in responses by parents' marital status and socioeconomic background The feasibility of a play activity involving puppets for assessing death concepts was also explored. It was concluded that there is no relationship between parents' marital status and young children's death concepts, that young children from different socioeconomic backgrounds are far more similar than different in their understandings of death, and that a play situation with undefined cause of death is a potentially useful supplementary means for assessing young children's death concepts.