IJFS - Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies

This article presents a review on “death education” and, in particular, on its use in the prevention field. Death Education, which has especially developed in English speaking countries, is an intervention area that is also becoming popular in Europe since it can be used at different educational and support levels. Herein we will examine the usefulness of death education, considering it both as an opportunity to give skilled answers to teenagers, who do not find in their family a place where they can address this topic, and as a primary prevention strategy for self-harm and suicide behaviors. It is considered the possible role of the school and how it may accomplish the task to initiate young people to the sense of limits. Indeed, according to literature, it seems that death education helps teenagers to contain death representations and to understand the real value of life and its frailty.