Where the philosophy of death gets more interesting is in the study of death attitudes. Psychologists have identified five major approaches to dealing with death. There’s fear of death (the active state of worrying about your own demise) and its opposite, death avoidance. Then there are the three intermediary stages of death acceptance: approach acceptance (I’m looking forward to the next life), escape acceptance (I’m looking forward to leaving this painful life behind), and neutral acceptance (I’m ambivalent, because death is simply a part of life). With children, fear of death and death avoidance are both healthy emotions (in moderation), as are approach and neutral acceptance. With rare exceptions, however, escape acceptance is the sort of thing a parent might worry about. Fortunately, scientists have released a psychometric test that you can use to assess your child’s philosophy of death. Here’s how it works: Meet The Death Attitude Profile Ask your child to answer the following questions with Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Moderately Disagree (3), Undecided (4), Moderately Agree (5), Agree (6), Strongly Agree (7). How To Score Your Child’s Death Attitude Profile Fear of Death: Add the scores from questions 1, 2, 7, 18, 20, 21, 32 and divide by 7. Death Avoidance: Add the scores from 3, 10, 12, 19, 26 and divide by 5. Neutral Acceptance: 6, 14, 17, 24, 30 and divide by 5. Approach Acceptance: 4, 8, 13, 15, 16, 22, 25, 27, 28, 31 and divide by 10. Escape Acceptance: 5, 9, 11, 23, 29 and divide by 5. When Should I Worry? There aren’t any studies on average scores for children. But researchers have found that men and women from every age group from 18 to 90 all have roughly the same average scores for each section, so children are unlikely to be an exception. The average fear of death scores and death avoidance scores are both about 3, the average escape acceptance score is about 4, and the average neutral and approach acceptance scores are both about 5. If your child deviates significantly from any of these averages, you may want to consult your pediatrician. At the same time, psychometric tests are designed to be taken under controlled conditions and administered by experts—not by you, in your living room. If your kid seems to have a healthy approach to death but scored way outside normal ranges, there’s probably no cause for alarm.