Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the developmental changes in chronically-ill children and healthy children about "Experience with Death" "Outlook on Postmortem" and "Image of Death". The study foucused on 79 chronically-ill children and 89 healthy children of 3-15 years old. These subjects were interviewed by the three question item. The results were as follows: 1. Healthy children had more bereavement experience than chronically-ill children to the question item "Experience with Death". 2. Three 7 year-old and 13-14 year-old chronically-ill children answered the bereavement experience with child of the same disease. 3. Three 13-14 years old healthy children talked what thought about life and death from the bereavement experience with grandparents, and thought about the meaning and the way of life where I lived. 4. One 3-years old chronically-ill female infant answered "I'm afraid I might die and expressed uneasy feelings toward death for the question item "Image of Death". Chronically-ill children and healthy children also had the important meaning as the chance to think about life and death in which the bereavement experience with the important other person. It is important that children talk frankly about death.