These classic works are followed by the contemporary research of Barbara Kane as she examines how Nagy and Anthony's research is viewed today. She is able to support their developmental models, however she disagrees with Nagy's findings of children tending to personify death. Gerald P. Koocher's research is examined next as he attempts to quantify the factors influencing children's concepts of death. He finds strong empirical evidence which links Piaget's developmental framework to the development of the children's conceptualizations of death. He also notes tha

t culture is an important factor which influences the conceptualization. The research of Tallmer et al is also discussed, as it finds evidence that children of different socio-economic backgrounds will have different concepts of death. Finally the research of Tamm and Granqvist is discussed, as they show that there are gender differences in the conceptualization of death.

Tallmer's work involved assessing the impact of socio-economic status on children's concepts of death using a sample of children from urban ghetto schools and children from middle class families. Using an interview format to study the children's conceptualizations of death, Tallmer found significant differences between the children of lower and middle classes; that is lower class children were more aware of the concept of death than middle class children. [7] She agreed with the work of Nagy and Koocher in that age and cognitive development were key factors in children's understanding, but her study clearly showed that these are not the only influences. Tallmer explained the differences attributed to socio-economic status by hypothesizing that the children's direct experiences could influence their conceptualizations. Lower class children are more likely to have exposures to real violence and more frequent contact with older children who will discuss death very vividly, so once the child has reached the concrete operational stage of development they would be able to learn from other's experiences and improve their knowledge of death. [7] However she also noted that when parents related their experiences of death, this had little effect on the children's levels of conceptualization. As to why lower class children may absorb more information about death, Tallmer explained that because they may be in more actual danger than middle class children, they may devote more of their intelligence to learning concepts such as death. [7]

2. Kane, Barbara. Children's Concepts of Death. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 134,

8. Tamm, Maare E., and Granqvist, Anna. The Meaning of Death for Children and Adolescents:

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tamm Granqvist, Koocher Piaget's, Nagy Anthony's, Maria Nagy's, Sylvia Anthony, Nagy Koocher, Barbara Kane, Anthony Nagy's, Gerald Koocher's, Koocher Kane, cognitive development, concepts death, children's concepts death, children's concepts, tamm granqvist, piaget's model, socio-economic status, children's conceptions death, nagy anthony, personify death, conceptions death, children's conceptualizations, children's conceptualizations death, tallmer et al, age cognitive development,
Approximate Word count = 2471
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)