Comparative Study of the Concept of Death in Children Based on the Nagy and Piaget Cognitive Pattern: Directed content Analysis

Introduction: The death of an important person in every person's life is the hardest event that can experience. In the meantime, the bereaved children   of a vulnerable population are at risk of social and psychological harm. The aim of this study was to investigate how children understand the concept of death and its components in cognitive-evolutionary periods based on Piaget's theory and Nagy' theory. Method: This is a review study using a qualitative Content research method, the concepts of death in the Piaget and Nagy evolutionary theories are investigated and, with regard to open, axial, and selective coding, are partially conceptualized according to age and developmental stages and psychological features have been extracted. Results: According to the studies, Nagy and Piaget's theories on the concept of death have had a great deal of commonality and complementarity. Finally, from the implementation of these two theories, four axes or selected codes of the components of death are extracted: stability, generality, non-functionality and causation. The components of stability and causality are fully understood at the age of 7-11 and the rest of the components at the age of 11-16. Conclusion: The results of this research can be useful in improving the study of the evolution of the concept of death in children and the profound understanding of existing theories around this concept. Also, using the results can help raise the awareness of parents, educators, counselors and pediatricians in the treatment of subsequent symptoms of mourning.