Qualitative Study on Generational Perceptions of Death in Korean Society: A Grounded Theory Analysis Across Three Generations

The purpose of this study is to qualitatively analyze the structural differences in death perceptions between generations, paying attention to the demographic reality of entering the super-aging of Korean society, and to propose the necessity of customized death education for each life cycle based on this. To this end, a total of nine people, three generations consisting of grandparents in the same family (70s-80s), parents (50s-60s), and grandchildren (20s-40s), were selected as participants in the study, and life-historical experiences were collected through in-depth interviews. The collected data were analyzed through open coding, axial coding, and selective coding according to the framework of the grounded theory analysis by Strauss and Corbin (1998). As a result of the study, emotion-centered acceptance patterns such as ‘regret' and ‘resentment' in the grandparents' generation, practical attitudes such as‘reflection' and‘preparation' in the parent generation, and thinking about ‘lethargy' and‘afterlife' in the grandchild generation were derived as key concepts. It was confirmed that all generations internalized death as a common factor of anxiety, and in particular, the absence of institutional education on death acts as a central phenomenon. This difference in perception was found to be the process of selecting and implementing different strategies according to various conditions and contextual variables such as family death experience, social disaster, educational experience, and religious belief. These results suggest that death perception is structured beyond simple individual emotional responses and is formed according to socio-cultural contexts and generational life experiences.