How Cultural Practices Influence the Understanding and Emotional Intensity of Mexican Children’s Memories of Death Events

Abstract

This study assessed whether a sample of 43 children in Puebla, Mexico would show the Fading Affect Bias (FAB) for memories of the death of loved ones or pets and for general negative memories. FAB is a phenomenon in which emotional intensity associated with unpleasant memories fades faster than affect in pleasant memories. Mexican children showed FAB across negative and death memories. Younger children showed lower fading for general negative memories when compared to older children. A second aim of this work assessed whether younger (ages 4.83–9) and older (ages 10–13) children in Mexico would show biological and spiritual understanding of death, and findings indicated that Mexican children’s understanding included both biological and spiritual subcomponents. Younger children showed lower comprehension of the death subcomponents Inevitability and Irreversibility. Higher depression, anxiety, and social stress scores as measured with the BASC-2 predicted lower FAB, lateralized to negative memories.