Death Version 2016: How Children and Adolescents are Learning and Grieving in Cyberspace

Cupit, Illene Noppe; Kuchta, Olyvia

doi:10.4324/9781315266237-3

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The high school years present a particularly vulnerable period when risk-taking behaviors seem to be related to skepticism about noncorporeal afterlife continuation (Noppe & Noppe, 1997). Once the province of family and religious education, exposure to death-related content frequently occurs now through sudden and traumatic experiences in the deaths of friends and family members and in social media (Cupit & Kuchta, 2017). Quality death education programs for high school students would be advanced by more research that looks at the relationships between fear of death, representation of death, and spirituality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the adolescent who is oscillating between childhood dependence and adult autonomy, emotional sensitivity to MS may be particularly intense (Bouton, 2003;Noppe, Noppe, & Bartell, 2006). In addition, adolescents increasingly experience sudden and tragic deaths of their peers, usually from accidents, suicide, and homicide (Cupit & Kuchta, 2017;Cupit & Meyer, 2014). The unexpected deaths of young people is a global occurrence-data from U.S. and world health surveys offer a catalog of these untimely deaths, and global conflicts and crises are exacerbating these tragedies (Cupit & Meyer, 2014).…”

Section: Terror Management Theory and Death Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Often, materialism, fantastic sensationalism, and horror characterize adolescents' exposure to the deathrelated content widely distributed in a variety of media venues. Despite the prevalence of such death encounters for this age group, adolescents frequently are isolated and isolate themselves in facing MS, looking for information and support mostly via social media (Cupit & Kuchta, 2017;. One aspect of formal death education that potentially could respond to this need encourages reflection of spiritual and religious issues and experiences that address concerns about one's own mortality (Kastenbaum, 2000;Wass, 2004).…”

Section: Terror Management Theory and Death Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study

et al. 2019

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This study describes the psychological effects of death education in reducing the fear of death in a large cohort of Italian adolescents. Following the constructs of "distal defenses" and "mortality salience" of Terror Management Theory, this research intervention also evaluated the proposition that spirituality and belief in an afterlife could provide an effective buffer against fear of death. Five hundred thirty-four Italian high school students participated in a school-based death education program with an experimental group and a nonrandomized control condition. Using a pre/post-course design, we assessed fear of death, alexithymia, and representations of death and spirituality for both groups. Results confirmed that the course reduced death fears and the representation of death as annihilation while also enhancing spirituality. In particular, the older participants in the death education course increased their spirituality and decreased their fear of death, whereas females reduced their conviction that death was an absolute annihilation. Finally, the structural model suggested that alexithymia mediates the relationships among fear of death and spirituality; in particular, fear of death predicted more alexithymia and more alexithymia predicted lower spirituality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Terror Management Theory and Death Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Terror Management Theory and Death Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study

et al. 2019

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“…The unexpected deaths of young people are experiences that can impact upon younger adolescents; sometimes they experience the sudden and tragic deaths of their peers, usually from accidents, illness or suicide, and when these experiences occur they find themselves unable to manage them and become isolated in their grief (Cupit and Meyer, 2014 ; Testoni et al, 2016b ; Cupit and Kuchta, 2017 ). At this critical age, unfortunately, the incidence of suicidal behaviors combines with other important indications of suffering: self-harm, addiction and challenging behaviors that endanger life (Gosney and Hawton, 2007 ; O'Connor et al, 2010 ; Haw and Hawton, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychodrama and Moviemaking in a Death Education Course to Work Through a Case of Suicide Among High School Students in Italy

et al. 2018

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This study describes the psychological effects of an experience of death education (DE) used to explore a case of suicide in an Italian high school. DE activities included philosophical and religious perspectives of the relationships between death and the meaning of life, a visit to a local hospice, and psychodrama activities, which culminated in the production of short movies. The intervention involved 268 high school students (138 in the experimental group). Pre-test and post-test measures assessed ontological representations of death, death anxiety, alexithymia, and meaning in life. Results confirmed that, in the experimental group, death anxiety was significantly reduced as much as the representation of death as annihilation and alexithymia, while a sense of spirituality and the meaning of life were more enhanced, compared to the No DE group. These improvements in the positive meaning of life and the reduction of anxiety confirmed that it is possible to manage trauma and grief at school with death education interventions that include religious discussion, psychodrama and movie making activities.

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“…In particular, this censorship may leave children and adolescents in a representational space, occupied by more or less arbitrary ideas that may produce disorientation in their existential reflection ( Corr, 1995 ; Testoni et al, 2019b ). Indeed, adolescents increasingly experience sudden and tragic deaths of their peers, usually from accidents, suicide, and homicide ( Cupit and Meyer, 2014 ; Cupit and Kuchta, 2017 ). The unexpected deaths of young people may be severely traumatic if not elaborated on how it happens in a death-denying culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

My Future: Psychodrama and Meditation to Improve Well-Being Through the Elaboration of Traumatic Loss Among Italian High School Students

et al. 2021

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This study was designed as an action research aimed to help students to elaborate their feelings of traumatic grief, due to a car accident and a suicide of two of their classmates, in an Italian high school. A death education project was realized in order to prevent the Werther effect. The intervention was based on psychodramatic techniques and meditation with Tibetan bells to encourage reflection on the suffering of traumatic loss, the sense of life, and their future. A total of 89 students from four classes (46 in the experimental group: two classes, 43 in the control groups: two classes) participated in the study, among which 82 (45 in the experimental group, 37 in the control group) completed the pre- and post-test survey. The intervention consisted of eight 2-h meetings, during which the themes of death and loss were dealt with through theoretical discussions, dramatization, and meditation. Two other classes which participated in the assessment as a control group did not attend the activities. The following instruments were used: Death Attitude Profile-Revised, which measures individual attitudes toward death; Psychological Well-being Scale, which measures a person’s psychological well-being; Resilience Scale for Adolescents, which measures the construct of resilience in adolescents; Self-Transcendence Scale, which measures self-transcendence; and Testoni Death Representation Scale, which measures the ontological representations of death. The results demonstrated that in the experimental group, there was a reduction in the fear of death and its avoidance, and that the students normalized the representation of death as something natural, thus improving their well-being. It is consequently possible to say that well-being is not simply the absence of suffering and worries, but rather, is rooted in the possibility of thinking of creative solutions to the trauma.

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Death Version 2016: How Children and Adolescents are Learning and Grieving in Cyberspace

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study

The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents: A nonrandomized controlled study

Psychodrama and Moviemaking in a Death Education Course to Work Through a Case of Suicide Among High School Students in Italy

My Future: Psychodrama and Meditation to Improve Well-Being Through the Elaboration of Traumatic Loss Among Italian High School Students

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