Teacher attitudes on coping with grief in the public school classroom

Abstract

Public school teachers are in a unique position to assist grieving children; however, preparation to meet this need is not typically included in teacher training. This study replicated a previous study with early childhood teachers (Pratt, Hare, & Wright, 1987) while also including the “Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R)” (Wong, Reker, & Gesser, 1994). With a sample taken from two communities, this study established teacher attitudes toward death and dying and their self-perceived ability to assist grieving students. The findings are compared with the findings from the original study by Pratt et al. (1987) and with norms for the DAP-R established by Wong et al. (1994). Both the quantitative and qualitative findings indicate the need for further teacher preparation in dealing with bereaved children. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.