Attitudes to Death Education in ireland (62%)and parents(55%)as the most salient influence on their wn personal attitudes to death The responses to the questionnaire items by both teachers and parents are displayed in Table 1. Overall, parents and teachers exhibited reasonably high levels of knowledge concerning the nature and possible effects of children,s grief. There was high awareness by both groups that Irish schools have practically no bereavement support groups. On communicating with children about death, there was generally strong agreement from parents (80%)and teachers(63%)that the concept of death should be discussed with children before they encounter it. However, roughly half the overall sample did agree that it is difficult to explain death to children and 71% of parents and teachers reported they do not feel comfortable talking about loss or death Views on the inclusion of death education in the schools curric- ulum were very positive with 72% of parents and 70% of teachers agreeing that it would be an acceptable subject on a lifeskills program. Only 11% of parents and 21% of teachers were of the view that death education programs would scare children However, 62% of teachers and 50% of parents agreed that death education was best carried out in the home. The majority of respondents disagreed that death education in schools would inter fere with pa sibilities, with only 23% of 40% of teachers being of the opinion that it would interfere with the parental role. Of the total sample, 90% collectively agreed that further training for teachers would be desirable to undertake the teaching of death education Analysis of the influence of demographic variables revealed that in comparison to their male counterparts, both female teachers (t=3.0, p<. 01)and female parents(t=2.55, P<. 01)were less likely to agree that helping a child to get over loss quickly is the best way to help with grieving. Female teachers([=2. 15, p<. 05) and female parents (t=3. 24, P<. 01) in comparison to their respective male counterparts, also perceived themselves as being more comfortable talking about death or loss. Overall, age was not found to significantly influence attitudes. However, younger teachers (i. e, under 40 years of age) were more likely than their older colleagues to agree that children can internalize blame for a death((=3. 17, p<.01)and that they can suffer as much from Copyright@ 2000. All rights reservedCopyright © 2000. All rights reserved