More or less dead: explorations about the construction of the concept of death in children / Mais ou menos morto: explorações sobre a formação do conceito de morte em crianças

• Main Authors: Maira Monteiro Roazzi, Maria da Graça Bompastor Borges Dias, Antonio Roazzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2010-01-01
• Series: Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica
• Subjects: Concept of death; Secular-biological; Religious-metaphysical
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-79722010000300009&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt

The objective of the present project lies on investigating when religious/metaphysical and secular/biological conceptions emerge in the development of a concept of death. A total of 92 children of 6-8 and 10-12 years old, from public and private schools, all from the city of Recife in Brazil were interviewed. Participants were presented to two narratives depicting the death of a grandparent and were further asked to judge if certain bodily and metal functioning cease or not after death. Findings indicate that children from both group ages hold an overall strong secular-biological view of death. In addition, children made distinctions between body and mind, giving secular/biological explanations to body functioning and religious/metaphysical ones to mental functioning.