Abstract: The current article examined childrens afterlife belief and explored its relationship with parents afterlife belief and parent-child conversation about death. Study 1 aimed to revise the Chinese versions of Belief in Afterlife (BA) Scale and Parental Disclosure with Children about Afterlife (PDCA) Scale. Exploratory factor analysis of each scale was done with 293 and 168 participants, respectively, and confirmatory factor analysis with 300 and 172 participants, respectively. The revised scales have good reliability and validity. In Study 2, 55 children aged 4 to 6 and their parents participated in the lab session. After watching a puppet show, Children were asked a series of questions to complete the Afterlife Belief Task. Parents were invited to complete BA and PDCA scales. The results showed that children scored significantly lower in emotion, desire and epistemic dimensions than in biology, psychobiological and perceptual dimensions, that parents' belief in afterlife could predict children's perception of death and their afterlife belief. Parent-child conversation about death was a mediator between parents' and children's afterlife belief. It was suggested that parents' beliefs had important influence on the development of children's beliefs, and it was of practical significance for life education to talk about death in appropriate ways, which might promote children's perception of death.

Key words:  4～6 year old children, perception of death, afterlife belief, parent-child conversation