Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree MASTER OF EDUCATION
in the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education at the
University of Zululand, 1997. / The aim of this study was to establish the effect of the death of a parent on the psychic life of a child and the support available to assfst the child in his bereavement.
As introduction a psychopedagogic perspective of the family was given in describing marriage, the family as an education milieu, parental roles and the special relationship between parent and child. The accompaniment of the child towards adulthood is dependent on the quality of the parent-child relationship. The parents' educational responsibility is to provide adequately for the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of the child.
The death of a parent is a traumatic experience for the child. The child feels the effects of death as intensely as an adult but in different ways. Research contributions on how children develop an understanding about death are in general agreement that this understanding develops in an orderly sequence from a state of total unawareness in very early childhood through stages to the point where death can be considered logically in cause of terms and outcome. The death of a parent can affect the child physically and psychologically. If the crisis situation of the child after the death of a loved one is not overcome, his becoming toward adulthood might be stifled. A wide range of behaviour problems may result in affective lability and hamper the child's cognitive development.
To overcome the trauma of the death of a parent the child needs support from people close to him - people he knows and trusts. After the death of a parent the process of mourning is considered as very important to the child's -recovery", and needs to be facilitated by the remaining parent or by other significant adult figures. The church, school and welfare institutions also play an important role in rendering support to the bereaved child and his family.
In conclusion, the findings emanating from the literature study were presented. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made:
Urgent attention must be given to the introduction of death education programmes in schools.
School guidance counsellors must initiate the establishment of programmes on death and dying in schools.
Further research on the affect of the death of a parent on children should be undertaken.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/736 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Rungan, V. |
| Contributors | Urbani, G., Vos, M.S. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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