• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.213-225
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• 2018

Objective: Research on children's death concepts requires an approach considering social and cultural context. A qualitative method is necessary to explore children's cognitive process of understanding death. Thus, this study, to overcome the limitations of the quantitative approach based on the deductive logic led by adult researchers, adopted a qualitative research method. Methods: The data collection, referring to the theories of Corr and Balk (2010) and Smilansky (1987), used Death Concept Questionnaire. Each structured question was followed by open follow-up questions to explore how children understood each concept of death. Results: The results showed that participant children were still lacking in the acquisition of death sub-concepts. The qualitative result from open interview showed how children can and can not acquire the concepts of death. Conclusion/Implications: The study could be used in future development of death education programs for children. Based on the results of this research, it is necessary to develop programs for children's death education, which would help them coping with death related anxiety and loss experiences.