Attitudes toward Life and Death, Religiosity, and Gender in Israeli Children

Abstract

This study focused on the impact of religion and gender on young children's attitudes toward life and death. One hundred and forty-two boys and girls responded to a semi-projective test involving fairy tales in order to assess attraction and repulsion toward life and death. All the children displayed a pattern of high attraction to life, low attraction to death, low repulsion by life, and high repulsion by death. The religious children in contrast to the nonreligious children displayed a higher attraction to death. There were also differences in the types of rationales provided by the children for their attitudes. Four types of rationales emerged interpersonal relationships, mental pain and enjoyment, physical pain and enjoyment, and selfactualization. Religious and nonreligious boys and girls differed with regard to the order of the rationales. There was also a main effect of gender and a gender x religiosity interaction. These results are discussed with respect to the religious and cultural impact on the formation of attitudes towards life and death.The phenomenon of suicidal behavior among children as young as five or six years old [l] makes it evident that children can be deeply involved in the existential issues of life and death [2-8]. The purpose of this study is to expand the scope of previous studies and to learn about normal children's attitudes toward life and death from the perspective of religiosity and gender-two variables that are most frequently studied with regard to attitudes toward life and death in adults. 139 8 1992, Baywood Publishing CO., Inc.

Two Weeks Post‐Death Report by Parents of Siblings' Grieving Experience

“…The grieving behaviors of children were found to be similar to the grieving behaviors of adultscrying, denial, avoidance, shock, and @t. Behaviors did not vary with age, but seemed to extend across the life span. Gender seemed to have no influence on the siblings' reaction to the death (McCown & Pratt, 1985;Orbach & Florian, 1992); and contrary to McCown and Pratt's findings, family size also did not influence siblings' reactions in the current study. The siblings in this study occasionally mirrored the behaviors demonstrated by their parents.…”

“…McCown & Pratt (1985) found no sigruficant differences in behavior of boys and grls following the death of their sibling. Orbach and Florian (1992) found no differences in the reactions of boys and girls to death in fairy tales. McCown and Pratt also found that the more surviving chddren in a farmly after the death of a child, the fewer behavior problems were ehbited by the siblings.…”