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Care, dying, death, and loss in children’s drawings from the Covid-19 pandemic in Sweden
Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet; End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije University Brussels.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4161-0342
Department of Medicine, University of California; Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6538-0786
Department of Psychology, European University of Flensburg.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0530-1385
Department of Psychology, European University of Flensburg.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2433-8714
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2025 (English)In: Death Studies, ISSN 0748-1187, E-ISSN 1091-7683Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Most studies gather data on children’s Covid-19 experiences from proxy adults rather than from children. We explore depictions of end-of-life issues in drawings created by children in Sweden about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, generated in response to an open invitation to schools, teachers, culture centers, etc. from a public archive of children’s art. A transdisciplinary team inductively analyzed 172 drawings containing images of care, dying, death and loss, finding qualitatively different portrayals differentiated by focus on (re)actors versus victims in the pandemic. The virus was often drawn as an aggressive, active agent, while humans, including professionals, appeared reactive and at a loss. The largest group of victims were without identity, although some children depicted themselves as victims. These children illustrate Covid-19-related questions, concerns, and fears about the end of life, reflecting “epistemological uncertainty” resulting from the pandemic. This uncertainty should be addressed, for example by trustworthy support in making sense of surrounding world, and by pro-active death educational approaches for both children and the adults who are in contact with them.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Informa UK Limited , 2025.
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Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-73371DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2025.2487787ISI: 001462484100001PubMedID: 40202518Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105002716363OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-73371DiVA, id: diva2:2000529
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Karolinska InstituteAvailable from: 2025-09-24 Created: 2025-09-24 Last updated: 2026-02-09Bibliographically approved

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Kleijberg, Max

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Tishelman, CarolWeiss Goitiandía, SofíaDegen, Johanna L.Kleeberg-Niepage, AndreaRullander, Anna-ClaraKleijberg, Max
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