ABSTRACT
Most of the published research on children's ideas about death and dying is based on interviews. The limitations of this technique have been pointed out by C. Wenestam: children may say things that are undigested quotations from adults. The research carried out by Wenestam, on the depiction of death in children's drawings, concludes that the socio-cultural environment influences children's thinking, especially up to about the age of nine years. The violence frequently depicted as a cause of death leads to a negative and fearful association, he asserts. Not surprisingly, children's cultural and religious backgrounds are shown to influence their ideas. G. Rochlin has carried out interesting studies of the emotional forces that influence children's attitudes to death. He clearly believes that children know about death as the extinction of all life from a very early age, but that they then utilize a range of defences in order to avoid the full implications of this awareness.
