The process of mourning in the adolescence stage

Abstract

In our society, death is not an issue that is addressed from the educational point of view, either formal or non-formal. Even more, it can be affirmed that it is one of the tabooest subjects in our society. Paradoxically, it is an absolutely irremissible reality and, on the contrary, it is obviated and psychologically and socially rejected. Both the negativity and the fear block a normalized perspective and relegate a healthy and preparatory approach until it is unavoidable due to the death of a close person. And in that inevitable moment we face and handle the stressful and painful reality of the death and the grief as we are capable. This is especially significant in the adolescence stage, a decisive vital period of continuous
physical, psychological and behavioral changes. In this line, the present work addresses the question of the grieving process and the need for an education for death in this evolutionary stage. Specifically, it aims to analyze, from a quantitative methodology of a descriptive type, the concept, feelings and attitudes that adolescents have regarding the death of a relative or a friend. Thus, an ad hoc questionnaire was designed, consisting of 14 items that combine both closed and open questions. It was applied to a sample of n=70 adolescents, aged between 12 and 17 years. Most of the subjects in the sample have lived a relatively close experience of grief and death and only a 4.29% having not suffered the death of a relative or a close friend. The results reveal that the feelings experienced are crushingly negative, expressing it to family and friends, although not always in the same way to both groups. On the other hand, they mainly carry out different farewell behaviors that start the grief and, in general, they express to have been able to overcome the different stages of that.