TEACHERS DEATH ANXIETY, ABILITY TO COPE WITH DEATH, AND PERCEIVED ABILITY TO AID BEREAVED STUDENTS

The focus of this study is the relationship between educators’ personal death attitudes and the emotional support they are able to give students experiencing serious loss. After a discussion of evidence illustrating how teachers’ death attitudes influence their ability to aid grieving students; the need for teachers to be aware of both those attitudes, and the needs of students suffering from the effects of loss are identified. Results are then presented of a study that assessed the correlation between teachers’ death attitudes and experience and their perceived ability to aid grieving students. Teachers’ ability to handle death of self, their level of death anxiety, their perception of their role with students who have experienced loss, and their ability to feel comfortable in counseling grieving students were among the factors found to predict their perceived ability to help grieving students. The implications of the research findings are reviewed, and the need for further research explored. © 1990 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.