The Psychometric Parameters of the Farsi Form of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety.

Mahboubeh Dadfar,Mohammad Kazem Atef Vahid,David Lester,Ahmed M Abdel-Khalek

doi:10.1155/2017/7468217

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the psychometric properties of the Farsi Form of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety (ASDA). The original scale was first translated into Farsi by language experts using the back translation procedure and then administered to a total of 252 Iranian college students and 52 psychiatric outpatients from psychiatric and psychological clinics. The one-week test-retest reliability of the Farsi version in a sample of college students was 0.78, indicating good temporal stability and corroborating the trait-like nature of scores. Cronbach's α was 0.90 for the college students and 0.92 for the psychiatric outpatients, indicating high internal consistency. Scale scores correlated 0.46 with Death Obsession Scale scores, 0.56 with Death Depression Scale scores, 0.41 with Death Anxiety Scale scores, and 0.40 with Wish to be Dead Scale scores, indicating good construct and criterion-related validity. A principal component analysis with a Varimax rotation yielded four factors in the sample of Iranian college students, indicating a lack of homogeneity in the content of the scale. Male students obtained a significant higher mean score than did females. It was concluded that the Farsi ASDA had good internal consistency, temporal stability, criterion-related validity, and a factor structure reflecting important features of death anxiety. In general, the Farsi ASDA could be recommended for use in research on death anxiety among Iranian college students and psychiatric outpatients.

Highlights

The understanding of death was one of the most important issues in ancient times and remains a persistent question facing humans today
The results indicate that the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety (ASDA) has good to high internal consistency and test-retest reliability in the Iranian samples of college students and psychiatric outpatients
Three components were identified of the ASDA in a sample of psychiatric outpatient, that is, fear of lethal disease, fear of dead people and death, and fear of tombs

Summary

Introduction

The understanding of death was one of the most important issues in ancient times and remains a persistent question facing humans today. Death anxiety is a negative and apprehensive feeling that one has when thinking about death and dying. Cross-cultural studies are important ways of establishing the parameters of any particular phenomenon including death anxiety [6]. Emerging research on nonWestern religions suggest that they may be associated with distinctive forms of death anxiety, such as the intense apprehension reported by many Muslims regarding “the torture of the grave” (a special and horrific set of punishments that can be applied to the bodies of the dead) [7], and so there is a need for culturally attuned research [8]. Many cross-cultural comparisons have been carried out on death anxiety [9,10,11,12]

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