Death Anxiety and Self-Esteem in Young Children with Aids: A Sense of Hope

Abstract

This study used Roger's science of unitary human beings nursing model and the theory of accelerating change to examine young children who have AIDS. Differences in death anxiety and self-esteem were compared among thirty-five healthy and thirty-five AIDS-diagnosed African-American and Latino children. Each child was individually administered the screening tool, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, the Thematic Instrument for Measuring Death Anxiety in Children, and the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance. The AIDS-diagnosed children did not manifest more death anxiety nor lower self-esteem than healthy peers. These findings are in contrast to previous studies about fatally ill children which routinely reported them to have high levels of death concern and low levels of self-worth. They provide a different framework for understanding the emotional needs of children with AIDS.