Abstract
A cross-sectional survey to investigate relationships between coronavirus anxiety, individual death attitudes, and personal worldview was conducted among 202 German-speaking adults in Central Europe. Results indicated that death anxiety significantly predicts coronavirus anxiety beyond sociodemographic variables. Women reported higher coronavirus anxiety than men. Against expectations, dimensions of personal worldview were hardly related to coronavirus anxiety. In contrast, we found evidence for a curvilinear relationship between religiosity as well as atheism and negative death attitudes. Our study contributes to recent discussions about death anxiety as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology and yields important implications for psychosocial support in the current pandemic.
Highlights
A cross-sectional survey to investigate relationships between coronavirus anxiety, individual death attitudes, and personal worldview was conducted among 202 German-speaking adults in Central Europe
A one-way ANOVA indicated that there was no significant difference in coronavirus anxiety between German, Austrian, and Italian participants, F(2, 191) 1⁄4 0.30, p 1⁄4 .745, gP2 1⁄4
In the light of this interpretative context, death anxiety can be regarded as a potential therapeutic target in the psychological support of individuals suffering from mental distress related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
A cross-sectional survey to investigate relationships between coronavirus anxiety, individual death attitudes, and personal worldview was conducted among 202 German-speaking adults in Central Europe. According to TMT, people draw on a set of evolutionarily developed strategies to alleviate anxiety resulting from a heightened (unconscious) awareness of one’s own mortality One of these strategies is the creation and the belief in cultural worldviews. A recent meta-analysis by Jong et al (2018) suggests that religiosity might not relate linearly to death anxiety, but rather curvilinearly in an inverted U-shaped manner; that is, highly religious as well as highly non-religious individuals are less fearful regarding their death than those who are only moderately religious In this view, personal conviction and certainty concerning one’s own worldview are perhaps more decisive for its ß 2020 The Author(s). An individual’s attitudes toward death might explain potential impairments of mental health related to the COVID-19 pandemic
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