Exploratory study of elementary-aged children's conceptions of death through the use of story

Research on death-related experiences has proliferated over the last decade. However, the amount of formative research that lay the foundation for using children's literature to examine elementary-aged children's conceptions of death following story presentations has been marginal at best. This study explored elementary school children's perceptions of death through story presentations. The subjects were 31 elementary-aged children (12 kindergartners, 9 second graders, and 10 fourth graders) randomly divided into Group I and Group II. Group I listened to three contextual stories that reflected real-life stories adapted from children's literature. While Group II listened to three media stories that presented an actual death experience based upon newspaper accounts. Group discussions followed each story session to assess children's conceptions using Kane's (1979) components of death. The ten components were realization, separation, immobility, irrevocability, causality, dysfunctionality, universality, insensitivity, appearance, and personification. Results revealed that variable patterns of Kane's components were found in the various grades as the sequence of the three stories unfolded in both groups. Further consideration should be given to examine the therapeutic benefits from bibliotherapy with young children related to the death concept.