Development of Afterlife Beliefs in Childhood: Relationship to Parent Beliefs and Testimony

Autor/inn/en	Misailidi, Plousia; Kornilaki, Ekaterina N.
Titel	Development of Afterlife Beliefs in Childhood: Relationship to Parent Beliefs and Testimony
Quelle	In: Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology, 61 (2015) 2, S.290-318, Artikel 4 (29 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0272-930X
Schlagwörter	Religion; Religious Factors; Logical Thinking; Parents; Beliefs; Children; Story Reading; Death; Biology; Perception; Emotional Response; Cognitive Ability; Questionnaires; Parent Attitudes; Age Differences; Comprehension; Human Body; Correlation; Social Influences; Cultural Influences; Theory of Mind; Elementary School Students; Preschool Children; Christianity; Foreign Countries; Physiology; Coding; Likert Scales; Statistical Analysis; Greece + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Eltern; Belief; Glaube; Child; Kind; Kinder; Sterbefall; Tod; Todesfall; Biologie; Wahrnehmung; Emotionales Verhalten; Denkfähigkeit; Fragebogen; Elternverhalten; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Verstehen; Verständnis; Menschlicher Körper; Korrelation; Sozialer Einfluss; Cultural influence; Kultureinfluss; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Christentum; Ausland; Physiologie; Codierung; Programmierung; Likert-Skala; Statistische Analyse; Griechenland
Abstract	This study examined the development of children's reasoning about the afterlife and its relationship with parental afterlife beliefs and testimony. A total of 123 children aged 5, 7, and 10 years were read a story describing the events that led to a person's death. After hearing the story, children were asked questions about the dead agent's biological, perceptual, epistemic-volitional, and emotional states and about the agent's capacity to engage in conscious mental activity. Parents completed a scale assessing the strength of their afterlife beliefs and a questionnaire examining aspects of parental discourse with children about death and the deceased. The results showed that, with age, children become more accurate at predicting the cessation of biological functions, perceptual states, and mental activity. However, children at all ages were reluctant to claim the cessation of epistemic-volitional and emotional states. Parents' afterlife beliefs and discourse about death and the afterlife were not related to children's afterlife responses. Our findings converge with the view that children's afterlife reasoning is grounded on cognitive mechanisms and may be less amenable to sociocultural input. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wayne State University Press. The Leonard N. Simons Building, 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201-1309. Tel: 800-978-7323; Fax: 313-577-6131; Web site: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/journals/merrill/merrillj.html
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01