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Updated: Dec 2, 2025
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
[Preschool Children's Emotional Understanding of Death: A Forgotten Dimension]
Filipa Martins Silva1, Ana Filipa Lopes1, Vânia Carneiro2
1Departamento de Pedopsiquiatria e Saúde Mental da Infância e Adolescência. Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Porto. Portugal.
Insights
Preschoolers understand death emotionally, with sadness being a key indicator of cognitive comprehension. Informing children about death is crucial for their emotional and cognitive processing.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychology
- Thanatology
Background:
- Limited scientific understanding of children's concept of death.
- International Children's Palliative Care Network identifies this as a research priority.
- Previous research has overlooked the emotional dimension of children's understanding of death.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the emotional aspects of children's understanding of death.
- To investigate the relationship between the cognitive and emotional dimensions of death comprehension in children.
- To address the identified shortcoming of avoiding emotion in death-related research.
Main Methods:
- Interviews with children aged three to six years.
- Utilized a book depicting a hypothetical scenario of a relative's death.
- Assessed cognitive subconcepts of death and children's emotional responses.
Main Results:
- 85% of children associated sadness with death.
- 87% believed parents should inform children about death.
- Higher cognitive understanding of death correlated significantly with reported sadness.
Conclusions:
- Even young children experience emotions related to death.
- Cognitive and emotional understanding of death are interconnected in children.
- Informing children is essential for healthy processing of death.
Introduction:
Scientific evidence regarding children's understanding of the concept of death is scarce. This has recently been pointed out by the International Children's Palliative Care Network as a priority area of research. In particular, the avoidance of emotion in this area of research is an important shortcoming. This study aims to develop an in-depth view of the emotional dimension of the child's understanding of death, also seeking to relate it to the cognitive dimension.
Material And Methods:
We interviewed children (three to six years old) using a book illustrating a hypothetical scenario in which a child faced the death of a relative. We asked questions to assess the cognitive subconcepts of death and the emotional dimension (what the child would feel and what parents should say).
Results:
Of the 54 participants, the majority said that the child would feel sad (n = 46, 85%) and that parents should inform her/him (n = 47, 87%); these responses did not vary significantly with age. The cognitive understanding of the concept of death in children who reported sadness was significantly higher.
Discussion:
Even the youngest children feel death, and it is not possible to disconnect cognitive and emotional understanding. Additionally, children should be informed in order to foster a proper and multidimensional elaboration of death.
Conclusion:
This study provides valuable information to health professionals and other interested adults about the way preschoolers position themselves in relation to death.
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