Evolving meanings of death during early, middle, and later adolescence

The relationships among death conceptions, death experiences, patterns of parent and peer attachment, and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents were examined in an effort to construct a revised notion of the meaning of death at different points in adolescent development. Students (N = 95) from middle schools, a high school, and a university were assessed with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, a 10-item open-ended death conception questionnaire, and a demographic and death attitude survey. Results indicated that death experiences, discussions about death, belief in noncorporeal continuation (some form of life or energy after physical death), and parent attachments appear to increase during the course of adolescence. Parent attachment was found to be inversely associated with death experiences, conversations about death, and risk-taking behavior. Other findings are discussed with regard to the dialectical tensions of this phase of development; portraits of the early, middle, and later years of adolescence; and the notion of reconceptualizing the ideas of adolescents as cognitive death schema.