Deck 10: Death in the World of Childhood

Question 1

A child's concern and curiosity about death is likely to develop:

A) as soon as they experience a loss
B) once they experience a separation, such as parents that divorce
C) regardless of any personal experience with separation, absence, or loss
D) after the loss of a family pet.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Each of the following represents some of the most frequent responses from people who were questioned about the way death was treated in their household as children EXCEPT:

A) they sat in dark rooms and became quiet
B) they did not recall any conversations about death with their parents
C) for those who were raised in Christian homes, death was addressed as a concept and limited to an afterlife
D) death was discussed by adults in front of children, but as if they were not present.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Freud thought that, having lost one's own childhood innocence, as adults parents want to:

A) fully expose their children to death in order to shake them out of their fairy-tale world
B) fully expose their children to death in order to sharpen their defense mechanisms and survival instincts
C) partially expose their children to death by allowing them to see dead animals but not dead people
D) safeguard their children from reality and let them live in a fairy-tale world.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following statements is the most accurate?

A) "Ring-Around-the-Rosie" became a popular game in the fourteenth century because it enabled children to deal with their death fears during the plague years.
B) "Dead Man Arise" was a popular Czechoslovakian song, sung by the children's choir at Easter time to celebrate the miracle of Jesus' return to life.
C) Children rarely think of death until about age ten.
D) Adults very seldom recall death-related experiences from early childhood.

Question 5

Which of the following statements is NOT supported by the research presented through the mother-child death communication case histories presented in the text?

A) Children are concerned more with the deaths of particular people or animals rather than with the topic of death in general.
B) Children do not recognize that death is a threat to their own relationships and security.
C) There may be several different orientations toward death within the same household.
D) There is now a transitional generation of parents who are trying to communicate in an open manner with their children, although their own experience was of family silence about death.

Question 6

One way in which death anxiety is perpetuated for another generation starts with:

A) parents whose own discomfort interferes with their ability to respond to a child's death-related curiosity in a simple and naturalistic way
B) parents who provide concrete details of dying and death
C) parents who use euphemisms such as "the great sleep" to explain death to children
D) none of the above.

Question 7

According to Nagy's research, which of the following statements best describes the first stage of the child's understanding of death?

A) Death is a person that makes people dead.
B) Death is separation.
C) Death is personal, universal, and inevitable.
D) Death is final-but one can escape it.

Question 8

Preschool-age children studied by Nagy:

A) did not want to talk or think about death
B) were full of questions about funerals, coffins, and cemeteries
C) showed no anxiety or negative feelings about death
D) expressed fears about death.

Question 9

Compared with Nagy's findings, studies today have challenged the notion of rigid "stages" and suggest that death-understanding is:

A) much less fluid as children grow to reach adolescence
B) much more fluid as children grow to reach adolescence
C) quite static as children grow to reach adolescence
D) none of the above.

Question 10

According to Kenyon (2001), which of the following factors had the most influence with regard to whom was more likely to demonstrate more advanced concepts of death?

A) girls in general
B) boys in general
C) children of either gender with superior intellectual and verbal skills
D) girls with superior emotional skills.

Question 11

Which of the following factors has the most influence in lowering children's levels of death anxiety?

A) Younger children display separation anxiety in their views on death.
B) Older children were more likely to depict death as scary.
C) Children with more mature levels of understanding have lower levels of death anxiety.
D) None of the above.

Question 12

When it comes to cultural influences on children's concepts of death:

A) Children in Sweden and the United States have similar concepts of death at the same age.
B) Muslim children are more likely to pray for the dead.
C) Taiwanese children are exposed to violent images of death.
D) All of the above.

Question 13

According to Kastenbaum and Fox (2007), the concept of an "imaginary friend" (IF) emerges during:

A) preschool years and exits during middle childhood (by age ten)
B) middle-childhood years (age eight to ten) and exits around the onset of adolescence (age twelve to thirteen)
C) preschool years and exits around the time of entry into kindergarten (age five to six)
D) none of the above.

Question 14

Some ways in which children who have "imaginary friends" may exit this relationship include that the imaginary friend may:

A) just fade away as new friends and activities play more of a role in the child's life
B) experience death as the result of an accident, error, disaster, or bad luck
C) experience death as a result of something the child perceived he or she did or failed to do
D) all of the above.

Question 15

When experiencing a death in the family, it is often more difficult for family members to accept a child's response when it involves:

A) anger
B) sadness
C) frustration
D) confusion.

Question 16

Children who are dealing with bereavement due to the loss of a parent:

A) tend to be more aggressive
B) show a higher frequency of delinquent and criminal behavior
C) tend to be over-achievers
D) all of the above.

Question 17

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children is often expressed by:

A) difficulties in establishing friendships
B) difficulty paying attention
C) difficulties in concentrating
D) all of the above.

Question 18

For girls who lost their mother during childhood, the long-term effects of bereavement are more likely to include:

A) as mothers, such women showed symptoms of depression, worried about their own deaths, were overprotective, and were perfectionists
B) these women often proved to be effective mothers themselves despite the impact of the loss of a mother during childhood
C) rhese women were more likely not to have children themselves out of fear that their own children would be more likely to have to deal with possible loss of a parent during childhood
D) both a and b.

Question 19

Mortality rates for all causes have been found to be higher among young adults who:

A) had cancer in childhood
B) suffered from PTSD
C) lived in poverty
D) lost a parent in childhood.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT recommended as advisable when considering the involvement of children in a funeral?

A) Suggestions should be solicited from children about how the funeral may be structured.
B) Children should be included in the family interactions surrounding the funeral.
C) Children should be required to attend, as they may regret not attending later in life.
D) Children should be acknowledged as legitimate mourners.

Question 21

When considering strategies for helping children to cope with bereavement, which of the following WOULD NOT be considered advisable?

A) Develop and maintain an open communication pattern.
B) Avoid direct discussion of what the child may be thinking and feeling about the death.
C) Provide continuing reassurance that there will always be someone to love and look after the child.
D) If a therapeutic intervention is needed, consider both individual and group counseling as possibilities, depending on the circumstances and the individual child.

Question 22

In her studies of terminally ill children, Bluebond-Langner found that they tended to move through five stages in the acquisition of information. The first stage can best be described by the statement:

A) "I know this won't go on forever."
B) "I am not really sick. This is a mistake or a bad dream."
C) "I have a serious illness."
D) "The medicines don't work all the time."

Question 23

The episode of the terminally ill three-year-old boy and stuffed duck toy he played with each time he was hospitalized suggests that:

A) very young children can understand death more acutely than adults would like to believe
B) magical thinking keeps very young children from recognizing that they can die
C) young children withdraw and become profoundly depressed when they become aware of their impending death
D) none of the above.

Question 24

It is recommended that dying children be given:

A) the opportunity to express their concerns through any modality that is natural and effective for them
B) confirmation that they are still normal and valuable people
C) assurance that they will not be abandoned
D) all of the above.

Question 25

Often dying children fear that:

A) they will not make it into heaven
B) their siblings will not get significant attention once they are gone
C) they will not be a part of what will happen in the family when they are gone
D) the memory of them will not be an adequate depiction of who they were.

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT typical of the experiences of SIBLINGS of dying children?

A) receiving too much attention from their parents to compensate for time given to their dying sibling
B) confusion about what role they are supposed to play in the family
C) feelings of guilt and ambivalence
D) uncertainty about the future.

Question 27

According to Papadatou, nurses and physicians who commonly work with terminally ill children experience a condition known as "the wounded healer." This condition is considered to be a form of:

A) burnout
B) disenfranchised grief
C) compassion fatigue
D) death anxiety.

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT one of the recommended ways of approaching a child who has concerns about his or her own impending death?

A) Use simple and direct language.
B) Help the child remain secure as part of the family.
C) Convey a sense of urgency about the need for the child's responses to be immediate.
D) Be a good observer.

Question 29

One complication parents experience as a result of their attempts to keep the relationship with their dying child alive is that of:

A) misunderstanding the medical condition afflicting their child
B) difficulties with being open to learning about the dying child's own responses to death
C) being consumed by their own feelings about the child's impending death
D) none of the above.

Question 30

The concept of a legally "competent child" with the right to make decisions about his or her own health care has been:

A) affirmed by major court decisions
B) affirmed by legislation in several states
C) neither a nor b since children, as a class, are not considered to be competent
D) both a and b.

Question 31

Children are seldom given the opportunity to participate in open discussions on death-related topics because families tend to follow the rule of silence.

Question 32

Studies indicate that college students have very little recollection of their childhood experiences with death.

Question 33

Historical observations strongly suggest that concern with death is a recent theme in children's play.

Question 34

The research case history sample shows that there is now a transitional generation of parents who are trying to communicate in an open manner with their children, although their own experience was of family silence about death.

Question 35

In her research on the stages of death comprehension in childhood, Nagy found that children in Stage 1, from three to five years old, have not yet learned to attribute negative emotions to death, and so death does not arouse anxiety for these children.

Question 36

There seems to be a tendency for children in America today to move through the stages at an earlier age than the children studied by Nagy.

Question 37

Kenyon (2001) found that children with superior intellectual and verbal ability tend to rationalize more than other children and, as a result, are more likely to develop a less sophisticated death concept.

Question 38

Stranger anxiety is a factor in younger children's understanding and response to death.

Question 39

Older children focus more on their own possible death than younger children.

Question 40

In both American and Japanese cultures, life and death are viewed as categories that need to be kept separate rather than as part of a broader totality that also includes the afterlife.

Question 41

The realization that death is universal and inevitable seems to be grasped at an earlier age by Muslim children.

Question 42

Kastenbaum's research shows that some children allow their imaginary friends to die as a way to explore grief and bereavement.

Question 43

Children are too young to experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Question 44

Major physical illnesses occur more often in the adult lives of those who were bereaved as children.

Question 45

Mental illnesses occur more often in the adult lives of those who were bereaved as children.

Question 46

Bluebond-Langner found that seriously ill young children paid little attention to the hospital routines or the staff and knew very little about their treatment regimens.

Question 47

According to Bluebond-Langner's research, some well siblings were concerned about being "assistant parents."

Question 48

Padadatou believes that the medical profession's traditional emphasis on diagnosis and treatment of disease is what has led to a better understanding of how to treat dying children.

Question 49

Papadatou found that the best support systems for pediatric nurses who work with terminally ill children are friends and family.

Question 50

The National Commission for Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research has proposed that by age seven a child should be given the opportunity to accept or reject participation in a research project.

Question 51

What is the definition of the terms

-Bereavement

Question 52

What is the definition of the terms

-Cystic fibrosis

Question 53

What is the definition of the terms

-Imaginary companion

Question 54

What is the definition of the terms

-Inochi

Question 55

What is the definition of the terms

-Leukemia

Question 56

Neonatologist

Question 57

What is the definition of the terms

-Personification

Question 58

What is the definition of the terms

-Plague

Question 59

What is the definition of the terms

-Post-traumatic stress disorder

Question 60

What is the definition of the terms

-Separation anxiety

Question 61

Provide two examples of ways in which early experiences with death in childhood can affect one's current experiences as an adult, and explain how reflection on these experiences could provide valuable insight into current feelings and/or behaviors.

Question 62

Describe one of the children's games discussed in the text with an emphasis on the death theme within the game.

Question 63

List three themes identified in the research case histories derived from structured interviews with mothers of schoolchildren.

Question 64

Summarize the progression of understanding as children move through Nagy's three stages. Discuss the usefulness of these findings given that more recent studies have been conducted.

Question 65

Discuss post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Include in your discussion a definition of PTSD, brief background on its development, factors that can lead to its development in children, and the impact that events such as the Oklahoma City bombing and September 11th terrorist attacks have had on children.

Question 66

List four general strategies that Kastenbaum recommends can be utilized to help children cope with bereavement.

Question 67

Describe the five stages in the acquisition of information that children with terminal illness move through.

Question 68

In addition to the medical, nursing, and support services needed by dying children, emotional and psychological aspects also need to be addressed. Drawing from the information provided in the text, identify three strategies for addressing these needs and provide concrete examples of techniques that can be used to implement each strategy.

Question 69

Provide five guidelines that can be utilized to address a child's death concerns. For each guideline, give an example of how this guideline might be effectively addressed.