Sequential Patterns of Five Subconcepts of Human and Animal Death in Children

This report analyzes the findings of two independent studies that investigated children's perceptions of five subconcepts of death in humans and animals. One hundred ninety-seven children from the first, third, and fifth grades participated. They were administered a measure of intelligence, a questionnaire of human death, and one of animal death. Each of the questionnaires consisted of five subconcepts: causality, finality, old age, irreversibility, and universality. The data were analyzed by means of the Guttman scale for reproducibility and scalability in order to find out the sequential patterns of the five subconcepts in human and animal death. Two basic patterns were found: one for human death, ranging from causality as the most difficult subconcept through finality, universality, irreversibility, and old age. In animal death, the sequence was as follows: causality, old age, finality, universality, and irreversibility. These patterns were consistent in the two studies, three age groups, and two levels of intelligence, with only minor deviations. The findings are discussed from the perspective of observable versus hypothetical aspects of death as an explanation of the patterns discovered.