A New Instrument to Assess Children’s Understanding of Death: Psychometrical Properties of the EsCoMu Scale in a Sample of Spanish Children
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Fernández Alcántara, Manuel; Santos Roig, Macarena De Los; Pérez Marfil, María Nieves; Cruz Quintana, Francisco; Vázquez Sánchez, Juan Manuel; Montoya Juárez, RafaelEditorial
Mdpi
Materia
Death concept School Causality Irreversibility University Non-functionality Children Scale development Neurodevelopment Grief
Date
2021-02-09Referencia bibliográfica
Fernández-Alcántara, M.; de los Santos-Roig, M.; Pérez-Marfil, M.N.; Cruz-Quintana, F.; Vázquez-Sánchez, J.M.; Montoya-Juárez, R. A New Instrument to Assess Children’s Understanding of Death: Psychometrical Properties of the EsCoMu Scale in a Sample of Spanish Children. Children 2021, 8, 125. [https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020125]
Abstract
The acquisition of the death concept in children may influence how these children cope
with the losses that they will confront throughout their lives. At the present time, there is a lack of
psychometric instruments in Spanish-speaking countries in order to evaluate the components of the
death concept in children. The aim of this study was to create and validate a scale (EsCoMu-Escala
sobre el Concepto de Muerte) in order to provide insight about the concept of death in children. The
sample was formed by 358 children from ages 6 to 13 years. The final EsCoMu version has 27 items
which serve to evaluate universality, irreversibility, non-functionality and causality. The results of the
confirmatory factor analysis show an adequate fit index for the four dimensions model, reliability
( = 83) and validity evidence, specifically based on the children’s age. In conclusion, EsCoMu is
an instrument that shows adequate reliability and validity indices in order to assess the concept of
death and its four components among children. Due to its simplicity, this instrument can be very
useful if applied to the field of neurodevelopmental disorders.