ABSTRACT
Death marks the end of growth and life. Yet, death in various forms and faces is an integral part of the world that touches everyone, old and young alike. Many adults remain reluctant to talk about death with children and adolescents. By and large, middle-class children and youth in contemporary American society experience close human deaths far less often than did children in previous eras. In previous eras, death occurred most often in the home and children helped with the care of the dying family member, were present at the moment of death, and participated in the funeral. Psychologists have long been interested in children’s concepts of death. The observation of animistic thinking by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget gave impetus to studies on child animism, on the concepts of “live” and “dead,” and the relationships between them, while other studies explored the evolution of death-related understandings.
