Spirituality and Children’s Coping with Representation of Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Research with Parents

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the related lockdown measures have had intense negative impacts on the psychological well-being of both adults and children. Among such impacts is a significant increase in mortality salience and changes in how people deal with grief and losses. This qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with 23 Italian parents to draw insights on the impact of the pandemic on children aged 5˗15 years with regard to their representation of death and the eventual role that family spirituality/ religiosity played in helping them understand both the concept of dying and possibly the pandemic itself. From the data analysis, four main thematic areas emerged: “Lockdown experience,” “Fears and worries related to COVID-19,” “Emergence of thoughts on the process of dying,” and “Representation of death and the impact of religious beliefs.” The participants highlighted how stressful the lockdown measures have been for their children and the anxiety that their children have experienced because of fears related to the pandemic. The interviews also surfaced how living in a religious family has contributed significantly to shaping children’s representation and understanding of death and sometimes even helped both the parents and their children to face difficult moments such as those caused by the pandemic.