research into telling children stories with nasty endings

[Guest gabysagal]

Hi

 

I am doing some research into the effect of telling children stories with nasty endings - think of all the Biblical stories from the Old Testament - lots of death, plagues etc. Apart from work done by Bruno Bettelheim, can anyone suggest other research i could look at

 

Thanks

[Rea]

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales were always rather, well grim. Hans Anderson tended to be softer.

[Guest]

I would think the best research would be watching a group of children listening to The Hairy Toe

[Guest gabysagal]

thanks. what i am really interested in is not so much doing the practical research but looking at what psychologists say about possible negative/positive effects on children's personal, social and emotional development of listening to these stories. i have got Betleheim's book which i will start reading, but wondered if there is any more recent research on this area

Thanks