title: Death and dying course offerings in psychology: a survey of nine Midwestern states.
abstract: The certainty of facing death and bereavement and the complex personal and societal issues involved argue for the importance of death education. The current study addresses a gap in knowledge by beginning to assess the extent of dying, death, and bereavement (DD&B) course offerings by U.S. psychology departments. This article reports on data collected from an initial survey of psychology departments in nine Midwestern states. Approximately 20% of respondents have offered a DD&B course in the last 5 years. Reasons for lack of DD&B courses include faculty and curriculum issues, as well as DD&B topics being covered elsewhere. These issues are discussed, and data are compared with DD&B course coverage in health-related fields.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana and Department of Psychology, Humboldt State University, 1 Harpst Street, Arcata, CA 95521, USA. beth.eckerd@humboldt.edu
authors.forename: Lizabeth M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Eckerd
mesh_terms: D001601:Bereavement; D003479:Curriculum; D003643:Death; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States; D011584:Psychology / Q000193:education*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013795:Thanatology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult