This study investigates the relationship between cognitive level and the concept of death in children with chronic diseases and compares the evolution of this concept between these children and healthy ones with the same cognitive level and the same socio economics background (poor). Cognitive level was avaliated through piagetian tasks and the Probing Tool for Concept of Death (Torres, 1979), measured the concept of biologic death. The sample included 167 chronic diseased children and 142 healthy children that had been tested in a previous study (Torres, 1996). The results showed that cognitive level of deprived children according piagetian standards is not worst among diseased children. Although chronic diseases initially appears as a deconstructive factor for the acquisition of the concept of death (pre-operational phase), in the following phase (operational-concrete) it appears as a factor conducing to a maturer understading of this concept.
child; concept of death; chronic disease
