title: Exploring children's understanding of death: through drawings and the Death Concept Questionnaire.
abstract: To investigate whether children's understanding of the concept of death varies as a function of death experience and age, 52 children aged 7, 9, and 11 years (26 had a personal death experience), drew a picture reflecting the meaning of the word death and completed the Death Concept Questionnaire for examination of Human and Animal Death. The results showed that the 2 methodological tools used offered complementary information and that children's understanding of death is related both to age and past experience. Children with death experience seem to have a more realistic understanding of death than their inexperienced age-mates. As regards to the effect of age, our findings support the assumption that the different components of death develop through different processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preschool Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece. fbonoti@uth.gr
authors.forename: Fotini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonoti
authors.affiliation: Department of Preschool Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.
authors.forename: Angeliki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leondari
authors.affiliation: Department of Preschool Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.
authors.forename: Adelais
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mastora
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001154:Art; D001293:Attitude to Death; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires