Children's Perception of Various Determinants of the Death Concept As a Function of Intelligence, Age, and Anxiety

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of age, intelligence, and anxiety on children's comprehension of four aspects of the death concept in humans and animals. One hundred seven children of three age groups (6-7, 8-9, and 10-11 years) participated in the study. Children in each age group were divided into high and low anxiety levels by means of a questionnaire. Then they were further divided into high and low intelligence levels by means of two subtests (Information and Similarities) from the WISC-R. The children were administered two questionnaires on human and animal death. The concept of death measured in this study consisted of the following aspects: causality, finality, irreversibility, and universality and old age. The findings show that some aspects of death (irreversibility) are easier to comprehend than others (causality) and that the human death concept is acquired more readily than the animal death concept in all aspects but finality. In addition, the interplay between intelli...