Attitudes to Death Education in ireland ief as adults do(t= 2.05, p<. 05 ). Younger teachers were also significantly more likely to disagree that children express less motion than adults(t=2. 17, p<. 05)and that their grief lasts a shorter time than adults((=2.98, P<. 01). Personal experience of bereavement was also found to influence expressed views. Parents who had experienced a personal bereavement in the last two years reported being more comfortable talking about death in compari on to those who had not(t= 2.03, P <. 05 ) Likewise, for teachers who had experienced a recent bereavement, they were less likely than their colleagues who did not have such an experience to agree that children express less emotions than adults do after a death (t=207,p<.05) There were few statistically significant differences between the arent and teacher samples in their responses. with regard to knowledge, parents were more likely than teachers to agree that children suffer as much from grief as adults(x= 10.95, p<. 01) while teachers were more likely to agree that children's grief lasts a shorter time than adults(x=5.33, p<. 05). Interestingly, con- cerning death education in schools, teachers were more likely than parents to agree that death education would take away from par ental ity(x=6.68, p<. 01). For the remainder of knowledge, attitude and perspective items, no significant differ- ences between the two groups were found Discussion The findings suggest that the attitudes of the teachers and parents in the present study are generally positive and compare favorably with those reported in previous North American studies. It is clear that both teachers and parents are dealing with childrens loss and grief on a regular basis. Both parents and teachers report high levels of understanding of the possibility of children,s unresolved grief leading to problems in adulthood. However, in keeping previous findings, both parents and teachers, particularly m report being uncomfortable discussing the topic of death with children. The results indicate that parents express quite positive views concerning death education programs. In contrast to Crase and Crase's(1982)study, the same parental concerns with regard Copyright@ 2000. All rights reservedCopyright © 2000. All rights reserved