Children’s Understanding of Death
| Age | Understanding of Death | Common Behaviors in Response to Death |
|---|
| Infant to toddler | - Unable to comprehend death
- Fears separation and abandonment
| - Frightened, difficulty separating
|
| 3–5 years | - Views illness as punishment for real or imagined wrongdoings
- May view death as sleep; cannot comprehend death
- Magical thinking; may think they caused the event by their thoughts or actions
| - Sadness
- Clinging to parent
- Nightmares, sleep disruption
- Regression in toilet habits
- Complaints of stomachache and headaches
- Temper tantrums
|
| School age | - Associates death with punishment multilation, violence
- May feel responsible for event
- By age 9, understands that death is final
| - School phobia, diminished school performance
- Aggressive behavior
- Preoccupation with parent’s health
- Loss of appetite
- Change in relationship with friends
|
| Adolescence | - Understands own mortality
- May seem to have adult view of death but not emotional view
| - Acting out; substance abuse
- Increased time with peers
- Withdrawal from family
- Depression
|