Does War affect Death Anxiety Level? Seven Readings of Measurements (1988–2002) before and after the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Abstract

The present study compared death anxiety level in 1988 (i.e., before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990) and six readings in the years 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2002 (i.e., after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991). The total samples for comparison were 2,221 male and female Kuwaiti volunteer undergraduates. The Arabic version of the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) was used with all groups. It was found that all the sex-related differences in the same year of the seven testing occasions were significant. For males, the mean DAS scores after the invasion in 1993, 1995, and 1996 were only significantly higher than that before the invasion. With females, there were a number of fluctuations; however, there was a significant increase of the DAS mean score directly after the invasion in comparison with that before it. By and large, the present findings support the Templer's theory regarding death anxiety as a fluid entity influenced by environmental events, particularly war-related experiences.