Uplifting and Uncanny Conversations Around Death and Dying: Qualitative Study Among Indian Adolescents and Emerging Adults

Abstract

This study explores perspectives of adolescents and emerging adults on having conversations around death and dying, if there is a value in discussing death early in life, and to explore the views on likelihood of introducing death education in Indian curriculum. Using constructivist grounded theory of qualitative research, the study inquired the perspectives of adolescents and emerging adults employing semi-structured interviews. All participants showed interest in discussing the topic; they actively participated in sharing their views, something that they heard, and inquiring about cultural practices. In analyzing the interview data, mainly three themes emerged: 1. Understanding death in relation to shadow and spirit stories; 2. Existential view on death and managing grief and anxiety; 3. Social and cultural narratives into death education. This study sets out to address a gap in research among adolescents and emerging adult attitudes and opinions toward death. However, there is a need to understand barriers in normalizing conversations around death and dying in wider communities in India and further research is essential.

Plain Language Summary

Purpose - perspectives of adolescents and emerging on holding conversations around death - to scrutinize if they find value in discussing death early in life and their views on likelihood of introducing death education in curriculum. Methods - constructivist grounded theory of qualitative research. open ended interviews to recognize how individuals’ knowledge is constructed inter subjective about death. Findings - mainly three themes emerged 1) Early conceptions of death in childhood, understanding it in relation to shadow stories; 2) Impact of rituals and Impressions of family and religious practices; 3) Significance of safe open space to discuss death collectively with family and friends. Limitations - 1) limited sample in relation to diverse religious, cultures, languages followed in India. Participants were from southern states of India with low-income backgrounds and attended public school. It is crucial to determine whether findings hold true when specific objective indicators like socioeconomic, health, educational level are considered. 2) Study was conducted at peak Covid-19 when surge in deaths, this might have had effect on participant’s responses which cannot rule out possibility that they may have exhibited different views otherwise Implications - 1) Active communication around death is essential to help adolescents and emerging adults develop resilience, emotional competency, cognition, and creativity. It presents hope in paving way for new knowledge in therapeutic interventions in managing grief, suicide prevention and mental wellbeing. 2) Huge scope for further research that counts perspectives of parents and educators on the topic, to initiate first steps in India at policy level to introduce death education in curriculum.

Keywords

grief bereavement adolescents emerging adults death education India

The word “death” is spine-chilling. Not many choose to talk about death until a life limiting illness knocks the door or it is about time to sit in the front row at a funeral. But lacking public dialogs on death and dying has serious consequences, individually and collectively. Unpreparedness to navigate grief, adolescents and emerging adults are particularly vulnerable to depression and suicide after the loss of a parent or loved one. They are at high risk of emotional and behavioral distress as attachment, financial burden, adulting can lead to alcohol dependence and substance abuse. As a result, they compromise on the quality of their lives and fail at social responsibilities. Authentic conversation around death is essential to convey true feelings as contemplating on mortality once in a while allows one to live true to their core beliefs and values, in decision making, managing emotions, build harmonious relationships, and social participation (Cuillier, 2009).

The main intention behind designing the study was to sense if subtle nudge in having conversation around death can pave a way toward healthy and wise living—to maintain a healthy lifestyle, refrain from anti-social activities, mindful driving, act upon organ donation, being empathetic toward self and others and so on. The study thus explored how knowledge is constructed and shaped around death using constructivist grounded theory of qualitative research among adolescents and emerging adults and scrutinized their perspectives on benefits and drawbacks of introducing death education into Indian curriculum.

Literature Review

In the first part of literature, study explores core concepts of existentialism and death attitudes as these influence individual’s worldviews around death. In the second part of literature the center of interest is death education, in objective and subjective sense based on data scrutinized in the first part. Finally in the theoretical review section study discusses two philosophical doctrines that serve best as a guideline to discern more on the topic. Literature identified the topic of death is bound predominantly to rituals and spirituality in India (Agrawal, 2021). While death was a topic in one way or another until the last few decades with modernization even, that has declined drastically. Journals from ADEC (The Association for Death Education and Counseling), Omega, Taylor & Francis, Routledge were reviewed encircling the topic.

Existential Perspectives and Death Attitudes

Existential philosophers opened new dimensions for better understanding of the centrality of death through social, cultural, and spiritual lenses by initiating conversions encircling death. Conception of existential worry, death anxiety, mortality salience is all associated with perceived threat on deeply held values by individuals. Research among children and adolescents with life limiting sickness expressed existential worry about being a burden to parents (Stein et al., 2019; Woodgate et al., 2014). Early experimental and correlational studies in the west have found that suicidal adolescents feared death less than non-suicidal adolescents. On the contrary, few other studies discovered that the Suicide Probability Scale correlated positively, indicating that individuals with greater suicide potential had higher death concern (Neimeyer et al., 2004). Findings on death attitudes are associated with the age and gender effects, highly correlated with age (Russac et al., 2007; Slaughter & Griffiths, 2007). Understandably, more research and interventions are needed in this direction and death anxiety associated with depression or suicide risk among adolescents and youth has received little attention in India.

Mortality salience or awareness of the inescapable from death, generates a state of anxiety that triggers a defense mechanism for the control of thinking that affects different human activities and psychological processes (Gordillo et al., 2017). A study among journalist students focused on “idealism” (the belief that every act should be based on the good it favors for others and rejects materialistic gains), “relativism”(ethical propositions do not reflect universal moral truths or principles) and “attitudes on ethical decision making” showed mortality salience caused students hold more dearly to their cultural worldviews of truth-telling, honesty, and minimizing harm behaviors (Cuillier, 2009).

Studies focusing on end-of-life care, coping, and bereavement that talked about death lowered apprehension and anxiety as it covered essentials related to the topic (Kotzé & Mole, 2013; Lyon et al., 2010; van der Geest et al., 2015). Research has shown death anxiety shifts over the lifespan, while children are mostly afraid of visible things or personify as angel or ghost, as individuals reach adolescence and throughout adulthood death anxiety increases (Jong & Halberstadt, 2018). The fear of death then diminishes with age and possibly peaks after one step into their fifties and eighties (Jong & Halberstadt, 2018; Sinoff, 2017). Parents underestimate children’s understanding of death and try to protect their children from the mental pain death causes. Many parents do not want to accept their own mortality and often pass on these anxieties and fears to their children (Schramm, 1998). Early onset depression succeeding parental or sibling loss can spawn suicidal behavior and hypertension among bereaved adolescents (Bergman et al., 2017; Porter & Claridge, 2021). While most studies talk on early identification and intervention to help adolescents and emerging adults from the burden of loss, not many studies talk about the merit and demerit of having conversations around death early in life which can be an effective intervention for physical and mental wellness.

Need for Integration of Death Education in Classroom

Research reveals that shrinking exposure to death among young means that the knowledge shared is scarce and insufficient attention is paid to their emotions. Death Education is important to prepare one for life, to encourage students to confront, clarify, and share their personal understandings about a situation (Rodríguez Herrero et al., 2022). Their personal dimension needs integration with the social world to help students navigate their anxieties, to obligingly interact with people in crisis, and to develop empathy. The constructs of resilience, emotional competency and cognition, creativity is strengthened which will allow improving the ability of students to recognize emotions and communicate them verbally in times of crisis (Testoni, Tronca et al., 2020). While a good amount of research has been done in health, hospice and palliative care to aid the elderly, caregivers, medical professionals and patients with life threatening illnesses like cancer and AIDS (Rajagopal, 2016), hardly any studies explore implications on talking about death occasionally in an ordinary life when one is in a healthy state of mind and body.

Thanatology—the scientific study of death has been around since the 1970s. Taiwan has officially adopted death education and has been embracing and modifying death-related cognitions and behaviors among adolescents and emerging adults by introducing the subject in mainstream schools. And countries like the US, Canada, the UK, Japan are finally breaking the ice through programs and campaigns which encourage people to start healthy discussions around death. Yet so far, no Indian universities offer the subject (Bhandari, 2022). The courses and certification program are only available outside India and costs exorbitant. Death education has acclaimed importance in the west and despite recognizing potential impact it can have on youth’s mental health, no bare minimum effort has been initiated in India at policy level.

Theoretical Framework

The current study is positioned toward a framework of moral subjectivism to detach from the past biases around the topic and explore potential positive outcomes it can bring to society by holding up consequentialist utilitarianism. By upholding moral subjectivism study has taken into account perceptive of adolescents and emerging adults where they discover what is suitable and inappropriate when it is a matter of death. Through the framework of consequentialist utilitarianism, I (researcher) support propositions from literature and findings from current study where one’s actions should be such that the consequences should produce the greatest good for all without compromising on individuals’ subjective worldviews.

This study intends to explore the constitutive reasonable link between an individual’s attitudes toward death and one’s conscious actions about life and how they live after a loss. The developmental phases among adolescents and emerging adults were crucial for the study as they assimilate from parents and seek from peers, socializing is considered to be of their interest, a period when they seek opportunities to engage with the content of their interests both in and out of school, a process that contributes to their identity formation and future orientation all of which affects their educational choices (Slot et al., 2019).

The aim of this research is to explore the views of adolescents and emerging adults, cultural and ethical relativism in perception about death conversations, as what they stand for as individuals and what their society and culture tells them—to understand adolescents and emerging adult’s perspectives on how the topic of death is treated at home, schools and society, to explore their perspectives on the significance of introducing death education in the curriculum. More specifically it aims to understand if there is any merit in engaging in death related conversations in the classrooms and at home with family without hampering the psychological construct of any individual. It intends to identify major resistance in holding conversations around death and to understand if such conversations can benefit and empower the bereaved better, not in the sense of complete recovery from the loss but to find solace in memory, adaptation to new life and growth in grief. Further, it intends to understand the range of human emotions by considering individuals cultural and regional differences in perceptions and attitudes toward death among Indians.

The current research is of importance as it tries to pitch adolescents and emerging adult’s perspectives in terms of holding on to truth and not judging contrasting views, feelings and behavior on the subject of death and dying—How do adolescents and emerging adults describe conversations on death in general and in relation to death education? How do adolescents and emerging adults describe conversations they have had around death with family and friends, do they describe such conversations as useful or not? How do adolescents and emerging adults negotiate resistance in talking about death with family members and friends? Talking about death allows one to develop a deeper meaning of life, to understand and act on complex social problems, further by seizing the attention of key stakeholders and driving necessary changes through policies.

Methods

The methodology adopted for this qualitative study was Kathy Charmaz’s Constructivist Grounded Theory. As no practical theory exists in Indian context in relation to the topic, it was prerequisite and essential to first gauge the preconception an individual holds about death. Charmaz’s transformational work on the methodology was specifically appropriate for examining factors that are complex, ambiguous and emotionally intense (Charmaz, 2017) and to recognize how individuals’ knowledge is constructed inter subjective about death. Constructivist grounded theory is a structured, yet flexible methodology and is appropriate to know more about the area of inquiry in relation to social support, loss experiences, and perception of time especially during pandemic. This study relied on comparative exploration on how participants construct meaning around death (Tie et al., 2019). Considering the exploratory nature and roots in interpretative philosophy, the study focused on understanding individual’s beliefs, experiences, behavior and set out to explain and critique understanding of the socially constructed nature of facts around death among Indian adolescents and emerging adults.

Participants

Participants of age 16 to 22 were considered as it is prime period to transition from adolescence to adulthood, where they regulate emotions, social and intellectual development occurs and thus would help in understanding their views in learning about their limits, sense of confidence and competence and attitude toward social issues (Griffin, 2017). Participants for the present study were nine, they were recruited from schools and colleges using snowball sampling with the support of a class teacher. Six participants belonged to Hindu and three from Islamic religious backgrounds. Although it was not predetermined to consider the religious background of the participants, during the course of the interview most participant responses were majorly associated with religious background and thus felt the need to highlight it in the study. All participants had experienced the loss of at least one family member, mostly grandparents, two participants had experienced the loss of siblings and some also shared loss episodes of neighbors or friends. Inclusion criteria were: 16 to 22 years of age, with no loss experienced in the past 6 months of interview commencement.

Procedure

The study required critical ethical considerations as a prerequisite. Approval was obtained from the University’s ethical review board. Preventive measures were taken right from the beginning to not cause any psychological or physical stress Informed consent was taken from all participants and parental consent for minors; confidentiality and anonymity of individuals were established. To ensure safety of participants, measures and precautions were undertaken under expert supervision and support was planned from an experienced therapist if participants felt the need to discuss any issues during or after the interview. Participants were treated with respect, risk and concerns about the study were briefed in advance and were allowed to decline to give information, exit from the process or take time and answer at their own comfort and convenience if any questions or situations during the interview caused discomfort. The interviews were open-ended to help prompt detailed responses which were significant to the study’s purpose while at the same time allowing the opportunity for the individual to share what really mattered to them. A few questions included were: What do you feel and think when you hear the word death? Have you had conversations with your family members or friends about death, in general? Can you remember how you came to understand and think about death? Do you think it is necessary to talk about death, why or why not? Memos were made during the interview and immediately after each interview to record the verbal and nonverbal behavior of the participants. All the interviews were audio-recorded and were transcribed verbatim in English (Woodgate et al., 2014) and naturalized transcription was adopted to maintain originality with no or least alterations wherever local languages like Hindi or Kannada was used (Nascimento & Steinbruch, 2019).

Data Analysis

Thematic Analysis was used to scrutinize the participant’s perspectives, emphasize similarities and differences, and consider abrupt insights while answering research questions (Nowell et al., 2017). Interviewing process, observations, coding, and developing themes were recurrent and concurrently taking place. During initial coding only fragments of data were analyzed against what is available in literature. As the interview progressed deeper meanings were discovered from the data. Data was analyzed first by examining responses according to research questions. As the interview progressed complete data was analyzed irrelevant of interview questions to discover new codes and categories, through constant comparative analysis, attention was given to abstract concepts, questions that focused on experiences and how the topics made them feel till theoretical saturation was attained. Attention was given to memo-writing to prompt new ideas and explore insights during the interviewing and analysis process. At intervals amidst data collection and coding memos captured my (researcher) thoughts, questions and captured the comparisons and connections made, that would refine research questions. Theoretical sampling was used to ensure all the properties pertinent to categories are addressed without leaving any room for assumptions, undefined, or questionable categories and until no new properties emerged.

The study also confirmed with participants, not just the behavior and experiences, but the context under which study was conducted so that the behavior and experiences become meaningful to an outsider. Strategies were adopted to ensure the validity of the study: to ensure trustworthiness in a qualitative study, true interpretation of the participant views and dependability were established by transparently describing the study action steps at the beginning of the study and engaged with participants during research development and reporting. Member checking was done on findings, interpretations and conclusions with five participants to be sure of the researcher and respondents views (Korstjens & Moser, 2018). Interpretation and analysis of participants’ interview data are thus perceived to be a direct reflection of their lived experiences without attempting to apply further meaning beyond (Obst & Due, 2021).

Findings

In analyzing the interview data, mainly three themes emerged: First, understanding death in relation to shadow and spirit stories; Second, existential view on death and managing grief and anxiety; and third, social and cultural narratives into death education.

Early Conceptions of Death: Engaging With Emotions of Fear and Unease

Most participants associated the word death with fear and unease. It was interesting how death is understood during childhood. Participants recognized an association with ghosts or a sort of shadow story that played a role in their understanding of death. Although children on their first encounter with the word “death” barely understood anything, that is, they did not fully understand the concept and realities of death, it was found that they associated it with fear very closely. The strong emotions and sudden perturbation caused by death within a family or community, and expressive culture associated with death like uncontrollably crying, rituals and other practices formed an uncanny explanation that impacts children’s knowledge of death. This study analyzed death-related apologue indicatively, funerals and practices after death, the deceased and what happens to their body, gods and demons, cries and grieving process. All the participants associated the word death with “fear,” few also mentioned as children their initial conversation on death began by discussing spirit stories with friends or parents. Although participants did not directly talk about death, they said they discussed nightmares with parents and were frightened to sleep alone.

“with friends conversing about ghost stories, the women in white saree by the tamarind tree and about that board game to call ghosts and all that, and at night would sleep with parents because I would be scared to sleep alone…”

Belief in supernatural elements is widespread throughout India, especially in rural areas. During the discourse, participants brought up how as children they ruminated on death and how the deceased would become ghosts and that they wandered if their wishes were left unfilled (Guneratne, 1999). Uncanny concepts like ghosts, witchcraft and shadow stories have a potential association with children’s understanding of death and are majorly overlooked. No significant studies have been published on this line and have very little information especially relating children’s conception on death. There is a contrast in the patterns in those untold vivid imaginary stories that are suppressed and avoided that can impact wellbeing (Ratnamohan et al., 2018).

Participants on their first experience of loss mostly specified loss of close family members like a sibling, grandparent or mentioned vivid memory of remembering a neighbor’s death. Two participants also highlighted the loss of pets they were attached to. Loss of pets can shape the understanding of death and grief among children as childhood pet attachment plays a critical role in children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development (Hawkins & Williams, 2017). They experience the same intensity of pain and unease on the experience of loss. Families and communities might be unable to find meaning in the death of animals, but it is critical to understand how children associate it within their grief, how they humanize an animal that grants them human characteristics and an afterlife (Testoni et al., 2017). Forbidding individuals to express their truth on death or concealing facts can only increase unease; whereas, on the contrary, if it is dealt with in a mature way, by normalizing talks within family and social groups, less anxiety is provoked (Slaughter & Griffiths, 2007).

Radical Impact of Rituals—Impressions of the Family, Spirituality, and Religiosity

The diverse cultural practices in India have played a major role in the formation of knowledge around death and are mostly limited to religious beliefs. This study explored how a family, culture, society could alter the orientations toward death and shape beliefs by the influence of the rituals and other associated factors. Every participant talked about religious and cultural beliefs, bringing them up at least once during the interview. Participants understood the concept of “last wishes” and discussed how their grandparents ensured wealth distribution among their children for harmony after they depart and how they conveyed specifying the place where they wish to be cremated.

“Usually grandparents already plan about things before death. We have to give this house to my son, give this place to my daughter and all… So before dying, they do this because they feel their children should not fight. And while they prepare themselves to get stronger, they tell their children, you should be stronger whenever we are not with you…”

Participants talked about the conversation they hear at the funerals, a farewell speech to the deceased delivered by close family members or relatives. They also discussed what other people say when one is dead, how they discuss their lives and legacies, and how they highlight mainly good work, in the belief that the spirit of the deceased is listening. Death, amongst other things, helps in harmonizing broken situations by ushering people together and mending damaged relations. Few participants discussed how death assembles people together, into a family, regardless of flawed relationships and separation. Cultural practices and differences among Hindus and Muslims were found.

“I heard a lot of people talk, like after somebody dies a lot of people at that moment always talk about how the person lived their life, they mostly say all good things, all the good work that they’ve done…”

“Muslims usually bury the bodies. Christians also bury, but in Hindu religion they burn the body. And while taking the body to the graveyard they also dance and I had a question around this and asked my teacher…., people also cry but no for a very long time because of their belief in rebirth I guess….”

The universal dimension of death, the inevitability was recognized by participants “going away from their loved ones.” They highlighted how rituals played a critical role in forming the representation of death, “saw everyone was crying, the body was in front of them and I knew that the person had left us.” Other narrative expressions that participants heeded at funerals were - what happens to the body, heaven and hell, offering food and flowers etc. The association of crying, sadness represents death primarily as the cause of pain since it involves forever separation, “we can’t see them and hold them again,”“it made me cry” (Testoni et al., 2019). Rituals associated with different culture and religion has played a major role in how we deal with death, it has formed attitudes as we witness various death practices and to some extent explanations that give believers the sense that they understand the meaning of death (Fonseca & Testoni, 2012), but with rapidly advancing technological era these might soon disappear as a participant noted “it is important to maintain death rituals” and felt the need to pass the knowledge.

Talking to Children About Life and Death—Reinterpretation of Pre-existing Resource Into Education in India

Death education is theorized and the word is new, but the knowledge exists through culture and practices and already has involvement within individual perspectives. Participants displayed complex methods of associating with word “death” and everyone conceptualized it differently. Findings show that not all participants share a similar outlook on death. While some participants related it to pain, “everyone was crying,” few others who had experienced loss of siblings or close family members identified value in talking about death. Not all participants found meaning in discussing death early in life, they said it might “make one anxious” or “hurt others.” Some had religious beliefs - continuing old rituals were important, some thought it to be inappropriate to discuss death with friends and family who have already experienced loss as it would bring back all the memories and make them sad. However, this did not indicate participant’s disinterest in the topic, all participants answered “yes” when asked if they would be interested in attending an open space around death dialogs had there been one in the school.

“I think we should talk and we should not…Both because when we talk about death we get stronger from inside like…,.and we have to do certain things for family or for close…, it can be like an inspiration, ‘we have to do this before we die’.

And on the other side we should not talk or overly think too much about it because it can make you feel sad that one day we have to leave everyone… How will they live without us and all that pain…”

“Yes, I would be interested in attending such a space. To learn more about death, like what happens after death…. (to our body, reincarnation etc), and we would know what to say to someone who has lost their loved one. I would know what to say to a grieving friend…. It is so important for us to let our pain out and experience all those emotions….”

The significance of such open space is that it can cultivate an appropriate mindset—emphasizing the importance of empathy, compassion, mercy, and love toward oneself and toward others and to live a meaningful life (Phan et al., 2020). Meaningful practice of life, such as for adolescents and emerging adults, may consist of voluntary community service, staying away from addiction or substance abuse, suicide prevention, to continuously reflect on their acquired knowledge and experiences, which could help refine understanding into the meaning of life (Fonseca & Testoni, 2012).

Research in western countries on enhancing existential thinking among children has shown that participants perceived these activities as teaching them to appreciate life, grasp the importance of enhancing one’s own existence and enjoy life fully (Testoni, Palazzo et al., 2020). However not everyone appreciated the possibility of discussing their greatest fear and sharing those thoughts and feelings. When participants were asked if they ever thought about the death of a loved one, some said no and said they wanted to avoid “negative thoughts.” There is still a gap in understanding of adolescents and emerging adults, many still have an opinion that it is a forbidden topic or term it as negative and don’t realize the potential benefit of it (Testoni et al., 2019). In technology driven times, personal interactions become critical to become comfortable with the subject of death. To ease anxiety and worry and to develop empathy, learning experience with teachers and peers is important on the topic.

Discussion

With an interest in exploring adolescents and emerging adult’s perspectives on holding conversations around death, this study was set to understand their reasoning on the suppression of thoughts related to death and if there were benefits in engaging death related conversation early in life. Prior research on physical or mental restlessness spawned by informal death related conversations has shown how communication around death and dying is socially constrained (Pino & Parry, 2019). Through constructivist grounded theory, this study traversed participants’ initial experiences on death from their childhood to how they knit those fragments and formed their views as they matured. Understanding universalities of death early can help one become more capable of attending to one’s personal social and time dimensions as participants showed the need to know how to comfort a grieving person. Participant experiences unveils that the loss of a loved one can form individual beliefs, death-based knowledge and shape the kinds of attitudes.

Upon reviewing the underlying premises, literature revealed that any disagreement within one’s current understanding on death, then initially they may experience insecurity but eventually the process will guide one to inquire into their own beliefs and find aspiration again. In confirmation to literature, participant responses pointed out that approaching the nature of death and wide-ranging experiences that are related to dying and grief allows one to reflect and rethink on the relationship with self, society, nature and the entire cosmos in a profound way. During the interview all participants were impelled to evoke experiences that they believed were essential but never openly discussed with anyone. They highlighted the need to emotionally be available to a bereaved family or friend but were uncertain about how to express it in words. Death Education thus can encourage students to confront, clarify, and share personal understandings and attitudes about death.

It is often assumed that children are blank slates when it comes to knowledge about death. On the contrary as participants shared during discourse, children already know a lot about death, and include shadow stories such as ghost stories as well as cultural stories transferred intergenerational through rituals. While a major part of literature in this area focuses on palliative care, or on providing practical information, not much research talks about designing death education from secular points of view. This has implications in designing death education in more culturally relevant ways.

Rather than designing educational interventions in a one-way information transmission mode, this study suggests that death education can be conceptualized as a safe space where children can share their diverse and subjective knowledge about life and death by including metaphysical concepts, rituals, and or any experiences that they relate to. The goal of death education should not just be transmission of knowledge but allowing one to attend to the personal dimension in learning about death and grief for which schools, colleges can create a psychologically safe environment by encouraging group discussion, role playing and experiential activities in the presence of educators (Wass, 2004). It is high time that Indian educational institutions should introduce at the minimum optional programs and provide spaces for students who are intrigued to learn more about the topic. “Life and Death Education” is one of the crucial elements that enable us to examine the ultimate meanings and values of life which should not be neglected (Lor, 2018).

Limitations

Despite the methodological advantages inherent in the current study, there were two important limitations that call for discussion. First, the sample considered for this study is limited in relation to diverse religious, cultural practices, and languages followed in India. Participants were from southern states of India, from low-income backgrounds and public schools and the data were collected narrowly from participant self-reports and from interviewer observations. It becomes crucial to determine whether these findings hold true when more objective indicators like socioeconomic status, health status and education are considered. The study considered the age group of 16 to 22 and thus also raises important concerns as to whether similar findings would be evident among younger adolescents and older emerging adult age groups. Given the importance of research in this field, further research is needed under various other circumstances such as populations that are culturally, socioeconomically and linguistically diverse and also with different age groups.

The second limitation is that the study was conducted during the times when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak and there was a surge in the death rate all around the world. Although it did not significantly affect the study in the context of the research inquiry that was aimed at, it might have had an effect on participants’ responses in the absence of a pandemic which cannot rule out the possibility that participants may have exhibited different views. In parallel, this time of tribulation also emphasized the need for the study given the great number of losses suffered by young people across the world to cope with loss and grief, acceptance of a hard time, in learning compassion and collectively helping each other.

Implications

The present study is of potential as it strives to propose an initial assessment of the implications of openly talking about death as such from an individual and social point.

This study brings back to the forefront on knowledge sharing around death, if it should be available to adolescents and emerging adults, if it should be socially shared and how such information should be given. While western countries have advanced in investigating community’s perceptions of death through understanding the attitudes of students, families, and teachers, such studies are derelict in India (Rodríguez Herrero et al., 2022). Adolescents and emerging adults may be particularly vulnerable due to a lack of competent reflections aimed at managing mortality salience and especially for those who are oscillating between childhood dependence and youth autonomy; emotional sensitivity to mortality salience may be particularly intense (Testoni et al., 2019).

This study addressed the different meanings that death education can promote in adolescents, showing that no participants highlighted any harmful effects. During the discourse, in fact, participants revealed interest in participating and responding to all the inquiries although this was an unusual topic for them. They recognized the relevance and value of an open debate about death-related issues to share concerns, questions and anxieties and to be available for family members, friends and neighbors in times of need. Age affects the thoughts about death (Kreicbergs et al., 2004) and the idea is to include age-appropriate content into the curriculum to eliminate fear. Using biological terms and discussing death in truthful and unambiguous phrases with children can help them clearly form their views and beliefs (Slaughter & Griffiths, 2007).

Active communication around death at personal and social level presents a hope in paving way for new knowledge in therapeutic interventions in managing grief, strengthening mental wellbeing, suicide prevention and death education. Not just loss of a mortal being but a non-death loss like grieving in the process of waiting, missing precious life events or opportunities are largely unnoticed in society and are too often hard to discuss with even close family and friends and people are left on their own to grieve and suffer from these types of non-death losses (Gitterman & Knight, 2019). Social and emotional learning which is often taught as a distinct subject has to happen all day long even while teaching mathematics and chemistry (Jesseman & Wong, 2021), only then do we teach competencies that can uplift us to talk about anything. Given the depth of topic and minuscule research in the area in India, there is a huge scope for further research that counts numerous factors, like perspectives of parents and educators on the topic, to initiate first steps in India at policy level to introduce death education in curriculum that can further lead to transformational actions in the area of thanatology in India.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Neha S Naik

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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