The examination of 5 to 12 years old children's expressions of their death perceptions

Those who seek for the meaning of life, encounter the concept of death inevitably. This is why many philosophers, poets, and authors have reflected their opinions about death in their works. Nevertheless, human beings avoid thinking or talking about it. According to the literature, to avoid thinking about the concept of death as adults, it is seen that struggle to make sense of this concept, so how the concept of death of children is a matter of wonder that signification. The pictures drawn by children may serve as rich data sources for determining their perceptions about the concept of death. Thus, this study aimed to determine how children expressed their death perceptions via their pictures and the sources to get information about death perception. For that reason, in this study mixed method research- explanatory model? was used. The study group consisted of 257 children in the age range of 5 to 12 who attended independent kindergartens and primary schools in Kastamonu, Diyarbakır and Eskişehir. The pictures drawn by the children and one-to-one interviews conducted with them were used for collecting the research data. After the children had drawn their pictures, one-to-one interviews were conducted with them so that they could explain their pictures. As a result of this data for the appropriate theme is made by forming the qualitative and quantitative interpretation. The obtained data were analyzed via the SPSS 15.0 package. The findings were utilized by forming frequency (f) and percentage (%) tables. In the present study, it was investigated how the children expressed their death perceptions via pictures and sources used to get information about death perception by gender, age, region of residence, and death experience. Furthermore, it was examined and discussed how the children expressed their death perceptions via pictures by the sources used by children for getting information in regard to death perception. No significant relationship was found between gender and children's expressions of their death perceptions via pictures. However, a significant relationship was found between the region of residence and children's expressions of their death perceptions. It was seen that the children in the age range of 5 to 12 reflected their death perceptions via the themes of "religious elements" and "violence" at most and "symbolic elements" at least in their pictures. Various recommendations were put forward in consideration of the results obtained in the study. Key Words: Death, death perception, the concept of death, child drawings.