Children's developing conceptions of the soul

The study investigates children's developing conceptions of the soul. Children aged 5-and 10-years (n = 80) and a group of adults (n = 160) were interviewed about the nature, the ontological properties and the location of the soul. The results showed that at the age of 5 years children begin to form an understanding of the soul as an immaterial entity that inhabits the human body. At the age of 10 years, children, similarly to adults, begin to describe the soul as the centre of our emotional and mental functioning. However, unlike adults, 10-year-old children cannot as yet understand the soul as an entity that can exist separately from the body.