Abstract
This study developed and validated a new measure to assess the death anxiety (i.e., Scale of Death Anxiety, SDA) on an individual’s somatic, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions from a symptomatic perspective in Chinese youth samples. Following a systematic process, a four-factor structure of the SDA was identified through principle components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis that revealed four aspects of death anxiety: Dysphoria, Death Intrusion, Fear of Death, and Avoidance of Death. The results of this study indicate that the SDA has a clear factor structure and good psychometric properties. The SDA supports death anxiety as a multidimensional construct, and the foundational role of fear of death in the generation of death anxiety. This scale is valuable and beneficial to research on death anxiety. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature because the SDA is the first assessment of death anxiety to include the constructs of dysphoria and somatic symptoms. And the potential clinical practice of the SDA was discussed.
Highlights
All but Death, can be Adjusted. – Emily DickinsonAs Emily Dickinson wrote, death is the one thing that nobody can avoid; it is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Freud, 1914)
The results revealed a good fit to the data of Study 2, χ2 = 302.72, χ2/df = 2.73, p < 0.001, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.90, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07, 90% CI = 0.065–0.084, SRMR = 0.059
The current findings suggested a negative correlation between age and the Scale of Death Anxiety (SDA), especially for perceived fear of death, which was consistent with previous research (e.g., Rasmussen and Brems, 1996; Tang et al, 2002)
Summary
As Emily Dickinson wrote, death is the one thing that nobody can avoid; it is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Freud, 1914). Due to the theoretical and clinical importance of death anxiety, many questionnaires (see Table 1) have been developed to assess this construct since 1970. The development of measures of death anxiety reflects an evolution of the definition of death anxiety, which has evolved over time from a unidimensional construct to a multidimensional one. Templer (1970) approached death anxiety as a subjective painful experience common to everyone and originally developed the 15-item self-report Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), which has been widely used.
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