Children's concepts of death: A Cross-Cultural Comparison among Muslims, Druze, Christians, and Jews in Israel

The concept of death in childhood develops as a cognitive process influenced by environmental factors. A total of 337 ten-year-old children belonging to the four major religious groups in Israel filled out Smilansky's (1981) Development of Death Concept Questionnaire. The groups' responses to this questionnaire revealed differences in the degree to which they had internalized the Western scientific concept of death, with the Jewish and Christian children's responses showing more internalization of this concept than the Moslem and Druze children's responses. Interpretation of the findings based on the situational, cultural, and socialization patterns that possibly differentiate among these groups were suggested and discussed.