Perceptions of death among children in Sweden

Abstract

The article discusses children’s thoughts about death. Research was carried out in two elementary schools in Sweden among 40 children between 6 and 9 years of age, data were collected through text reading, movie viewing and dialogues with children. The main results reveal child-specific thoughts about the end of life, i.e., ideas children construe on their own. The findings also show society- and time-specific thoughts that children take from their societal and cultural context. The article proposes an integrative approach between these two: it is only when the categories of child-specific and society- and time-specific thoughts are combined that we get a fair picture of children’s perceptions of death. The main finding is that children form ideas of their own; they are not completely under the influence of their societal and cultural context. Children take over ideas from their surrounding society but they also express ideas produced by themselves.