Do adolescents want death to be included in their education?

Abstract

This study sets out to ascertain adolescents’ attitudes and opinions towards death education. To this end two instruments were designed and validated: the ‘Death Education Attitudes Scale-Students’ and the ‘Death Education Questionnaire-Stu dents’. The total sample comprised 1897 secondary school students aged 12–19. Participants showed moderately positive attitudes towards death education. Vari ables such as gender, age and religious beliefs infuenced results. Death is not unfa miliar to adolescents; on the contrary, it afects them through the loss of loved ones, and they saw themselves as capable of refecting on it. The study has implications for the training of teachers and families and for the inclusion of the awareness of death in curricula and in educational policies on national and international levels