Death Anxiety Scores Research Articles

Death Anxiety among Lebanese Samples

An Arabic version of the Templer Death Anxiety Scale was administered to 673 Lebanese volunteer subjects (164 boys, 165 girls in secondary school, 170 men, 174 women undergraduates). Females attained higher mean death anxiety scores than males. The Lebanese samples had either the same or a lower mean score on death anxiety than their Arab peers, that is, Egyptians and Kuwaitians and also US samples. Split-half reliabilities ranged from .57 to .68.

Death Anxiety, Disclosure Behaviors, and Attitudes of Oncologists toward Terminal Care

Relationships among death anxiety, disclosure behaviors, and attitudes of oncologists toward terminal care were examined by means of a questionnaire responded to by ninety-nine members of the Oncology Society of New Jersey. Death anxiety scores were lower for oncologists than typically reported for physicians in general. Oncologists with low death anxiety scores related to dying patients more effectively than oncologists with high death anxiety scores. Short-term repeated exposure to dying patients resulted in comfort with dying patients while long-term repeated exposure resulted in discomfort. Disclosure to patients' families was clearly a more frequently reported behavior than disclosure to the patient. Oncologists who did not always disclose a terminal prognosis to the patient reported difficulty with disclosure, tried to avoid direct disclosure, and were not as comfortable with dying patients as with other patients.

Beyond the Living Will

Sixty-three residents of a retirement community with living wills were studied to see if more specific planning for, and thus control over, their dying process would decrease their anxiety about death. The experimental group received intervention in the form of counseling and filling out a questionnaire regarding specific treatments (e.g., CPR, feeding tubes), proxy decision making, and other related questions. Results show that the mean death anxiety score for the experimental group decreased, whereas the control group's mean score did not change significantly.

The relationship between death anxiety and level of self-esteem: A reassessment

A total of 157 undergraduates (58 men, 99 women) completed self-esteem and death anxiety testing instruments. In agreement with previous research, it was found that women had higher death anxiety scores than men, and that subjects low in self-esteem had higher death anxiety scores than those high in self-esteem. Unlike previous research, the present data failed to yield a significant difference in level of self-esteem between men and women.

Death Anxiety, State and Trait Anxiety in Kuwaitian Samples

200 male and 277 female undergraduates at the University of Kuwait completed the Templer's Death Anxiety Scale and Spielberger, et al.'s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for which retest reliabilities were adequate. Women had higher mean scores than men on death and trait anxiety but they were similar in state anxiety. The mean death anxiety score for Kuwaitians was very close to that of Egyptians. There was similarity in death anxiety between Kuwaitian and United States men, but not women. Significant differences appeared on trait anxiety, showing the order from low to high mean scores: United States, Kuwaitian, and Egyptian university students. Correlations among the scales were significant; however, the correlation between state and trait anxiety was higher than that between death anxiety and both state and trait anxiety for men and women. Death anxiety was associated more closely with trait than with state anxiety.

Impact of Hospice Volunteer Training on Death Anxiety and Locus of Control

This investigation examined the effects of a hospice volunteer training program on locus of control and death anxiety. Experimental participants consisted of hospice volunteers who underwent an eight-week volunteer training course ( N = 29) and controls who were selected from the hospice mailing list ( N = 30). Results indicated both groups decreased in generalized conscious death fear, but increased in their conscious fear of others' deaths, although experimental participants did so to a somewhat greater extent. An overall decrease in several unconscious death-related fears (e.g., loss of control, overall covert death anxiety) was also observed. Training participants repressed death fears more often, relative to controls. While training seemed to sensitize participants to the uncontrollability of death, covert fears of loss of goals and achievements were lower for volunteers with training than for controls. Regardless of training, unconscious fears appeared to become conscious, as did Templer death anxiety scores (indicating a lessening of denial), with the exception of overt fear of the death of others, suggesting that hospice volunteers may continue to fear the loss of others irrespective of training.

Death imagery and death anxiety.

This study investigated the relationship between positive/negative death imagery and death anxiety. Subjects were 179 undergraduate students at a large, private, midwestern university. Results reveal that on five measures of death anxiety the subjects with low death anxiety scores had significantly more positive death images than did those with high death anxiety scores. The few subjects who imagined death to be young (N = 14) had a significantly more positive image of death than those who perceived it to be an old person. Death was seen as male by 92% of the male respondents and 74% of the female respondents. Significant differences in death imagery and death anxiety were found between subjects enrolled in an introductory psychology course and those enrolled in a thanatology course. No sex differences in death anxiety or positive/negative death imagery were found.

DEATH ANXIETY, MENTAL HEALTH AND LENGTH OF INCARCERATION IN MALE FELONS

The present study employed the Templer Death Anxiety Scale and the Langer Mental Health Scale in examining death anxiety and mental health as a function of length of incarceration in 56 male prisoners, categorized according to homicidal, sexual, or nonviolent convictions. Nonoffenders (N 60), closely matched by age, race and socioeconomic background, served as a comparison group. While no significant death anxiety difference was found between offenders and nonoffenders with all subjects included, sexual offenders had significantly higher death anxiety scores than nonoffenders. All three offender groups had significantly more reported psychopathology than nonoffenders. Both death anxiety and extent of psychopathology were inversely related to length of incarceration. Findings are discussed in terms of current arguments regarding the personality structure of capital offenders, as well as the possible value of a death threat in deterring serious crime.

Death anxiety and comfort in teaching about death among preschool teachers

Abstract This study examined 96 women early childhood educators' death anxiety and their comfort in discussing death with preschool children. Ninety percent believed it was important to be able to discuss death with young children, but only 32 percent felt prepared to do so. liachers' death anxiety scores were significantly correlated with comfort with dealing with death in the classroom (R = .30). Death anxiety was significantly related to teachers' training in children's understanding of death. No other academic or personal experience factors were significantly related to death anxiety or comfort. However, there was an overall pattern for anxiety and comfort scores to be higher for subjects with the greatest academic and personal experiences in death and dying. Suggestions for teacher education and future investigations are presented.

The Relationship Between Type A and Type B Behavior Patterns and Level of Self-Esteem

Scores on Form A of the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBi) and the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) were evaluated as a function of Type A +, A −, B −, and B + behavior pattern scores on the modified Jenkins Activity Survey for Health Predictions. Type A + and A− participants had significantly lower self-esteem (TSBI) scores, but significantly higher death anxiety (DAS) scores than did Type B− and B + participants. While gender differences did not exist with regard to TSBI scores, females had significantly higher DAS scores than did males.

The Relationship of Sex-Role Orientation to Death Anxiety in Middle-Aged Males

The purpose of this study was to determine how sex-role orientation was related to death anxiety among a group of middle-aged males. A nonprobability sample of 237 male volunteers between the ages of forty and fifty-nine, of whom 88.7 percent were engaged in professional occupations, completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) and Boyar's Fear of Death Scale (FODS). In addition, “death experience” was measured by three items and was employed as a control variable in determining the relationship between sex-role orientation and death anxiety. Results of this investigation indicated that “death experience” or the amount of contact the male has had with death was not related to death anxiety. Additionally, those middle-aged males with a traditional male sex-role orientation (high masculinity/low femininity) did not exhibit higher death anxiety scores than those males with an androgynous orientation (high masculinity/high femininity) as was predicted. Thus, in this sample of professional middle-aged males, the men with a traditional sex-role orientation did not differ from those males who were androgynous with respect to death anxiety levels.

The interrelationships of ego strength, self-esteem, death anxiety, and gender in undergraduate college students.

The interrelationships of ego strength (Barron Ego Strength Scale), death anxiety (Death Anxiety Scale), and self-esteem (Texas Social Behavior Inventory) were studied in undergraduate university males (n = 20) and females (n = 59). Significant negative relationships between death anxiety and self-esteem and ego strength, and a significant positive relationship between self-esteem and ego strength were shown by both males and females. Moreover, males showed significantly higher self-esteem and ego strength scores, and significantly lower death anxiety scores than did females.

Three measures of death anxiety: birth order effects and concurrent validity.

Investigated the concurrent validity of three measures of death anxiety and the effect of birth order on death anxiety as measured by each of the scales. Ss were 100 undergraduate students at a large, private, midwestern university. Results showed significant intercorrelations (p less than .001) among the three scales; only one scale (Templer) differentiated first-born and only children from later-born children. The former had higher death anxiety scores (p less than .05).

Religion and Death: A Test of Homans' Thesis

This article tests George Homans' contention that religion arouses a sense of anxiety concerning death and then alleviates the anxiety it creates. Data were collected on 372 participants who were randomly selected employing a multistage cluster sample of Northfield, Minnesota residents. Interview schedules were administered to the participants consisting of various background items, the Leming Fear of Death Scale [1] and ten items developed by Glock and Stark [2], and Faulkner and DeJong to assess religiosity [3]. Correlating religiosity scales scores with death anxiety scores and controlling for the factors of age, social class, and religious preference; a curvilinear relationship was found between the primary variables. Such evidence seems to indicate that religiosity may serve the dual function of afflicting the comforted and comforting the afflicted.

Sex and Marital Status Differences in Death Anxiety

Previous research in death anxiety has suggested that marital roles, and especially the male's role as the family provider, influence the sex differences in death attitudes. This study investigated the effect of marital roles by comparing sex differences in death anxiety scores of married persons with and without children, and of single persons. In addition, twenty demographic covariates were investigated to observe their possible effect on death anxiety. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that marital status was not significantly related to death anxiety. However, single males were found to have significantly higher death anxiety than single females. Whether a family member or friend had died in the last year, education, race, age, and religious preference were also significantly related.

A Comparative Study of Measures of General Anxiety and Death Anxiety among Three Medical Groups Including Patient and Wife

A problem not yet extensively researched among hemodialysis patients and their families concerns matters of dying and death. This paper presents a comparative study of general and death anxiety among three different groups of physically ill males (center and home hemodialysis patients and surgery patients) and their wives. The MMPI, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Templer's Death Anxiety Scale were administered to all S's. In addition a Death Questionnaire was used in a structured interview setting with dialysis patients and their spouses in their homes. General and death anxiety scores of male and female Ss were compared. Husband-wife correlation coefficients were determined for measures obtained. Inter-correlations of the measures used were also determined.