Death and Children

Term Paper # 100270

Child, Youth Issues
Psychology > Child and Adolescent
Sociology

Death and Children

This paper discusses personal and African cultural attitudes towards death.

1,244 words () | 3 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The writer demonstrates how Africa's culture in general denies death and denies children a healthy expression of grief. The writer relates that children internalize signs of grief such as depression and withdrawal, or they externalize grief as anger, aggression or behaviors that are not socially condoned. The writer describes how his/her own childhood was impacted with cultural attitudes that produced a lasting effect on his/her view of death and ability to grieve. The writer concludes that on both a personal level and a wider scale, the emotional issues related to loss need to be addressed.

From the Paper:

"Africa is comprised of many regions with different racial and religious groups as well as various issues related to death and grief. In general, however, the cultural norms and socialization agents tend to be the same. Death, especially as it affects children, is denied, and before adolescence children are not allowed to have any association with funerals or other rituals. Meanwhile, Africa has one of the highest death rates in the world. Certain people on that continent see the reality of death for what it is, where death is linked to global inequality. For the most part, death is perceived in terms of superstition."

Sample of Sources Used:

AVERT: An International AIDS Charity (2006). HIV and AIDS in South Africa. http://www.avert.org
Scheper-Hughes, N. (1998). Undoing: Social suffering and the politics of remorse in the new South Africa. Social Justice, 25 (4), 114-143.
Wood, K., E. Chase & Aggleton, P. (2006). Telling the truth is the best thing. Social Science & Medicine, 63 (7), 1923-1933.