Mention death and for most of us, thoughts automatically turn to later adulthood, but as we know, death can occur at any point across the lifespan.

Infant & Childhood Deaths

Earlier in the semester we reviewed infant mortality data. Parents of infants or children that have died tend to have a very difficult time coping with their loss. Depression is a common reaction and depending on the age of the child a mother's grief may be compounded by postpartum depression. Prenatal death, or miscarriages, are also particularly difficult. Often others do not attribute as much meaning to a miscarriage as the loss of a child after birth. As such, many parents suffering prenatal losses feel isolated in their grief. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby. SIDS tends to strike between the ages of 2 and 4 months. There is no known cause of SIDS, and parents often experience feelings of intense guilt. Accidents are the most frequently cause of death in childhood, but there are a substantial number of homicides. For most parents, the grief over the loss of a child is profound.

Children do not have a realistic view of death. Before the age of 5, children see death as a temporary state, similar to sleeping, but around the age of 5, children begin to accept death as universal and final. Young children may leap to the erroneous conclusion that they are responsible for the death of a loved one.

The adolescent's view of death is also unrealistic and often highly romantic. Adolescents tend to think death cannot happen to them (personal fable). As with children, the most common cause of adolescent death is accidents, but among adolescents, accidents usually involve motor vehicles. Other causes of death include homicide, suicide, cancer, and AIDS. Adolescents tend to feel invulnerable, so confronting a terminal illness can be difficult. They often feel angry and cheated.

Death in young adulthood is particularly difficult because it is the time in life when people feel most ready to begin their own lives. Leading causes of death for young adults are accidents, suicides, homicide, AIDS, and cancer. Young adults facing their own death have several concerns surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality. Like adolescents, young adults are outraged at impending death and may direct anger toward those with whom they are the closes.

By middle adulthood, disease is more prevalent as a cause. Life-threatening diseases are the most common cause of death in middle adulthood. These adults are more aware and accepting of death, but also have a lot of fears, more than at any other time in the life span, actually. The most frequent causes of death are heart attack and stroke - both of which are sudden.

In late adulthood, the prevalence of death and losses make people less anxious about dying compared to other times in their lifespan. The most likely causes of death are cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Impending death is sometimes accompanied by an acceleration of declines in cognitive functioning. This phenomenon is known as the terminal decline. The suicide rate increases with age for men. Caucasian men over the age of 85 have the highest rate of suicide.