“You have to be mentally prepared for that moment”: Attitudes of the adolescent population to death and their educational implications

Abstract

This article deals with the opinions and attitudes of the adolescent population toward death and its possible treatment in formal education at a public secondary school in Spain. To do so, we use a mixed methodology - DEA-S scale (n = 366) and three focus groups (n = 23), using descriptive statistical analysis, cluster analysis and qualitative thematic analysis. As in other studies, these students show moderately positive attitudes toward the inclusion of death education at their school, but their position is not unanimous, and above all, they admit its inclusion with certain reservations and conditions that reveal a limited conception of the educational potential of death education: they do not consider it appropriate at all educational stages and are critical of the way in which similar topics are usually dealt with at school. The analysis provides important didactic guidelines for the promotion of death awareness in secondary education.