Childhood and Death: a Study on Children’s Perception of the End of Life

Abstract

This article discusses children’s perception of death, stressing the responsibility of parents and school to address the issue. It is a qualitative exploratory research carried out in a private school in the inner State of Rio Grande do Sul. Girls and boys aged nine to ten years old participated in the research. Data was collected using the projective Fairy Tales Test, mainly the F4A slide that refers to the theme of death, and also a drawing showing what it represented to each participant. The most relevant results, interpreted in the light of psychoanalytical theory, were divided into four categories: ways of dying (diseases and violence); death associated to older people; concepts of irreversibility, non-functionality, and universality; and personal experience. Therefore, it was found that the experience of loss is a remarkable fact in children’s lives. The drawings showed the theme of death associated to sorrowful situations, such as images of burials, funerals, and coffins, indicating that these children understand it as finite, universal, and irreversible. As interventional proposal it is suggested that schools adopt solid strategies to address this issue, therefore providing time and trained professionals (psychologists and educational psychologists).