Death education: knowledge, attitudes, and perspectives of Irish parents and teachers

This article reports on a cross-sectional survey of the knowledge, attitudes and perspectives of Irish parents and school teachers concerning children's grief and the concept of death education. The sample comprised 119 parents and 142 teachers of Irish Primary-school children (5-12 years of age) who completed a self administered questionnaire. Both parents and teachers reported high levels of understanding of the nature of children's grief and strongly supported the view that death should be discussed with children before they encounter it. Although discussions of death were reported in the classroom and in the home, both teachers and parents, particularly men, reported being uncomfortable talking to children about death. There was general support for the inclusion of death education in the school curriculum, with both teachers and parents supporting the need for further teacher training to undertake its delivery. There were few significant differences between the expressed attitudes of parents and teachers. However, teachers were more likely than parents to agree that death education would take away from parental responsibility. The implications of the findings for further work in this area are considered.     

Attitudes toward death education for young children

Abstract

A state-wide study was conducted to determine early childhood educators' perspectives of death education for young children. The results of this study generally indicate that teachers are (a) convinced of the need for self-development, (b) willing to cooperate with parents of children who have experienced significant loss, (c) attempting to respond to children's concerns related to death, and (d) exploring the possibility of initiating a more systematic approach to death education as a component of the early childhood curriculum. There was no significant correlation between the respondents' attitudes and the variables of age, sex, race, teaching experience, income, religion, and education. Several experiences and concerns of early childhood educators are analyzed.     

Comparisons of Parent Cardiovascular Knowledge,Attitudes, and Behaviors Based on Screening and Perceived Child Risks

Questionnaire reports and universal screening procedures from 244 children (kindergarten, 5th grade, and 9th grade) were used to explore differences in parent health knowledge and attitudes of cardiovascular risks among children and parental involvement in promoting healthy lifestyles relative to whether their children were identified as being overweight or at risk of being overweight. The knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the parents of children who were identified as being at risk or overweight were further examined based on their perceptions of their children's level of risk. Parents' reports demonstrated significantly greater parent encouragement and knowledge of issues related to eating healthier foods and ways to cut calories among parents of children who were identified as being at risk or already overweight. A significant portion of parents underestimated their children's weight risks. Differences in parents' appraisals of their children's overweight risks were associated with differences in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. These findings illustrate the need to address inaccuracies in parents' assessments of their children's overweight risks to improve parent investment and involvement in children's health modification programs.     

Transitioning Children from Psychiatric Hospitals to Schools: The Role of the Special Educator

Over a quarter of a million U.S. students each year reside for a period of time in a psychiatric inpatient hospital setting to receive mental health treatment. Following inpatient treatment, most children are transitioned from the hospital into a regular school setting. Little is known about how these transitions are managed by hospital or school personnel. The current study examined the role of the special education teacher in this transition process. A national sample of special education teachers was surveyed about their involvement in the transition process. The majority of special education teachers reported active involvement in the transition process through contact with parents and hospital personnel. In addition, special education teachers reported behavior problems present in children upon their return to school and the skills, knowledge, or resources that would assist them in facilitating children's transitions. Implications for research, training, and practice are provided.     

Always With Me: Understanding Experiences of Bereaved Children Whose Baby Sibling Died

An arts-based qualitative method was used to explore the experiences of children's bereavement after a baby sibling's death, in the context of their family and school life. Data were collected during in-depth interviews with 9 bereaved children and 5 parents from 4 Canadian families and analyzed. A central process, evolving sibling relationship over the years, and a pattern of vulnerability/resilience, ran through all four themes, which reflected ideas of connection, impact of parental grief, disenfranchisement and growth. Findings indicated that home and school are critical to children in creating safe spaces for expressing the evolving nature of infant sibling bereavement.     

A family perspective: Helping children acknowledge and express grief following the death of a parent

Abstract

Children grieve and experience a tremendous, devastating loss at the death of a parent; yet they often struggle with identifying and expressing their grief verbally. Thus, the surviving parent, as well as the adult helpers (teachers, therapists, nurses, and others) need to be aware of the unique developmental nature of children's understandings of and responses to death. An adult helper can encourage children to acknowledge, identify, and express their emotional reactions to grief by modeling, validating, and normalizing children's grief responses. Grieving children are helped not only through direct expression of grief but especially through symbolic expression of grief. Included in this article are specific examples of activities designed for grief expression in young children (preschool through grade six) and their families.     

Effects of a child bereavement training program for teachers

Abstract

A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate a child bereavement training program for elementary and preschool teachers. The treatment group (n ? 10) received a four-hour workshop based on a model by Corr (1). When compared to a control group (n = 10), the treatment group gained significantly more knowledge of children's grief children's conceptions of death, and an awareness of teaching resources. No significant differences in comfort in discussing death with children was found between the two groups. Workshops that include skills training as well as knowledge were proposed as a way to increase teacher's comfort in discussing death with children.     

Evaluation of a school re-entry nursing intervention for children with cancer

A retrospective qualitative design was used to identify and compare the concerns parents, teachers, and children have regarding school re-entry after a cancer diagnosis and to describe the impact of a school re-entry program on parents', teachers', and children's concerns. Audiotaped, semistructured interviews were obtained from a convenience sample of 10 children with cancer (ages 5 to 13 years), 10 mothers, and nine teachers. All participants were positive about the school re-entry nursing intervention, which is described. Results of content analyses indicate that before the intervention, mothers were concerned about their child's safety and peer teasing; teachers were concerned about their own knowledge and peers' adjustment, and children were concerned with keeping up with school activities. After the intervention, mothers were less concerned about peer teasing but continued to be worried about their child's safety in the school setting and began to have concerns about academic progress and physical stamina; teachers reported increased concerns for the child's safety and academic progress, and a desire to return to normal routines in the classroom; and the children continued to have concerns with maintaining academic and physical progress. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Workshops in caring: A first module

Abstract

Whether to introduce death education into the elementary school curriculum is still a controversial issue. The purpose of this article is to discuss the possible use of stories from children's readers to deal with death and related topics within the classroom and as a developmental-preventive approach. The impact of the literature experience, affective as well as cognitive, is discussed. Also described are some suggestions with regard to text selection, teaching strategies, and teacher training. It is argued that the use of texts from children's readers can help both teachers and children to deal with death topics indirectly and in a nonthreatening way.     

Children's perceptions of their use of assistive devices in home and school settings

Purpose.?The study aimed to explore how children with cerebral palsy (CP) perceived their disability and assistive devices and to consider the factors influencing their device use in home and school settings.

Method.?Semi-structured interviews were adopted as the main data collection instrument. There were 44 participants, which comprised of 15 Taiwanese children with CP as well as their mothers and teachers.

Results.?Most children associated their perceptions of disability with their experiences of lower physical performance. Consequently, they generally perceived assistive devices as having a positive effect on their disability. Their enthusiasm for using their devices in the home and school contexts, however, was markedly different. Four factors leading to such a difference were identified, namely the nature of the two environments, physical environmental factors, the children's desired level of independence and the mothers' attitudes.

Conclusions.?The results demonstrate the significance of child-environment interaction. The children's attitudes towards device usage are influenced by their perceptions of the contextual feature of both settings. Additionally, the results indicate that children's views about their assistive devices may be different from those of adult users due to their different developmental stages and unique personal experiences. The findings suggest the importance of children's active participation in the field of assistive device research.     

“Dream On:” Awaking the Dream

Abstract

When there is a death in the family, adults, desirous of shielding the children from grief, frequently exclude them from participation in related activities and are reluctant to share with children important family experiences and feelings. Children, on the other hand, even very young ones, have a genuine interest in knowing what death is and have the emotional stamina to survive loss and grief—provided the loved adults are attentive to the children's queries and responsive to their feelings.

Incidents from the author's experiences and from literature illustrate the nature of a child's comprehension and humanity when encountering death of a sibling, a parent, a great-grandmother. Children have the strength also to live through the greatest loss of all—the death of young parents.

Adults should recognize the young child's need for protection against grief and fear of death at the time when it is expressed, but they must be truthful about facts and not use euphemisms such as “going to sleep,” which may lead to serious confusions.

Being truthful in sharing feelings of sorrow with children helps build a trusting relationship between children and adults and enables both to endure “the saddest day of my life.”     

Teacher intervention with elementary school children in death-related situations

Review of recent research in death education reveals a dearth of information in at least two areas: (1) what forms death education already is taking with elementary school children in actual death-related situations and (2) what influence the teacher's attitude toward death may have in such death education. This paper describes a study that deals with both issues and provides a basis for the future work of classroom teachers as therapeutic agents with children in grief.     

Attitudes of parents,teachers, and health professionals toward child disabilities

Attitudes toward 20 different handicaps in children were investigated by requesting groups of psychologists, parents of children with handicaps, parents of children without handicaps, special education teachers, and regular classroom teachers to respond to three different attitudinal measures. The measures consisted of an Adoption Scale, calling for degree of acceptance of each condition for adoption; a version of the Semantic Differential Scale, involving ratings of each condition on seven bipolar scales; and a Social Distance scale, measuring the acceptability of children having these handicapping conditions within the community, school, social group, and home. The findings indicated major differences in attitudes attributable to disparate rating groups, handicapping conditions, and measures employed.     

An exploratory study on attitudes toward inclusive education in Russia

This exploratory study examined the attitudes toward inclusive education among Russian teachers, administrators and parents of students with and without disabilities (n=176). The results indicated that while there were no significant differences among teachers, administrators and parents of students with and without disabilities on overall attitudes toward inclusive education, there were significant differences in perspectives about the possible time-frame for implementing inclusive education. Generally speaking, school administrators and teachers tended to express the belief that inclusive education could be a reality even today, though many of this group thought that it might be a question of the near future or undefined future. Both groups of parents tended to think that inclusive education could occur in an undefined future. There were significant differences among the three groups about perceptions of responsibility for implementing inclusive education. Administrators, teachers and parents of students with disabilities viewed it as a responsibility of the school, while parents of students without disabilities viewed it as the government's duty. Further, the majority of respondents reported the lack of necessary conditions in schools and the lack of government policies and finances as the main barriers to inclusive education. These findings suggest two areas of intervention to promote the implementation of inclusive education in Russia: physical accessibility of schools and government support.     

Traumatic and Complicated Grief Among Children: One or Two Constructs?

The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of traumatic and complicated grief among children. Some authors seemingly use the concepts interchangeably, whereas others make a distinction between the two. A sample of 240 mainly parentally bereaved children were administered the Extended Grief Inventory (EGI). Two confirmatory factor analyses were run to examine the EGI factor structure and to determine whether traumatic and complicated grief are one or two concepts. Goodness-of-fit tests for the two models was considered acceptable for both models, however, the two-factor model was a better fit. Multiple regression analyses found that children's age, gender, and ethnicity were important predictors of traumatic grief but only gender was a predictor of complicated grief. Violent death was a predictor of complicated grief in an unadjusted regression analysis.     

Young Children's Grief: Parents' Understanding and Coping

The grief experiences of young children and the interactional dynamics between parents and children leading to healthy grieving remain comparatively underresearched. This article reports a qualitative evaluation of a Norwegian Bereavement Support Program where 8 parents described their young child's grief reactions and coping and how these intersected with their own grief. Successful parental coping with their child's grief involves understanding the child's genuine concerns following the death and an intricately holistic balance between shielding and including, between informing and frightening, and between creating a new life while cherishing the old.     

Illness and death of a peer in a group of three-year-olds

Abstract

This paper details the experiences of teachers and children in a class of 3-year-olds following the illness and death of a class member. The children voiced many concerns as they tried to understand the relationship of Marjorie's illness and death to themselves and to their families. The teachers responded to this uneasiness in a variety of ways, always aware of the children's developmental needs and their conceptual understanding of death. The record of children's questions and comments is accompanied by a record of teachers responses, assessment of children's needs and rationale for choosing specific responses; providing an example for others to use in similar situations.     

Stigmatization and Suicide Bereavement

With survey data collected primarily from peer support group participants, the authors compared stigmatization responses of 462 parents losing children to suicide with 54 other traumatic death survivors and 24 child natural death survivors. Parents who encountered harmful responses and strained relations with family members and non-kin reported heightened grief difficulties. After controlling for time since the death and whether a child's death was traumatic or not, stigmatization continued to be associated with grief difficulties, depression, and suicidal thinking. Suicide survivors reported little differences in stigmatization from other-traumatic-death survivors, a result consistent with other recent studies, suggesting more convergence between these two populations than divergence.     

Family characteristics and parents' and children's health behaviour are associated with public health nurses' concerns at children's health examinations

The study aimed to establish whether family characteristics and the health behaviour and illnesses of parents and children are associated with public health nurses' (PHNs') concerns about children's physical health and psychosocial development in the context of health examinations. Factors affecting children's health and well‐being should be identified as early as possible to provide children and families appropriate support. In 2007–2009, a cross‐sectional study in Finland collected information about PHNs' concerns, children's health and well‐being as well as the background factors affecting them during health examinations of preschool‐age children and school‐aged children (n = 4795). Associations between family characteristics, parents' and children's behaviour and diseases, and PHNs' concerns were assessed using logistic regression analysis. Overweight in children, the long‐term illnesses of both children and parents, and parental smoking were the factors most strongly associated with PHNs' concerns about a child's physical health whereas non‐nuclear family types, the father's low educational level and unemployment, the child's lack of sleep, and bullying were associated with concerns about the child's psychosocial development. The connections found demonstrate that health examinations should address factors that affect the whole family's well‐being so as to comprehensively promote children's health, growth and development.