Death Depression Scale-Revised Research Articles

The Reliability and Validity Study of Turkish Version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised Among Nurses.

The study aimed to establish the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised (DDS-R) with a sample of 284 nurses. Cronbach's coefficient for the whole scale was .909 and the sub-dimension values were calculated as .934, .798, .715, and .537. The test-retest reliability coefficient was found to be .880. The content validity index (CVI) of the scale was calculated as .86. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that 62.254% variance was explained in 4 sub-dimensions of the scale (existential vacuum, death emptiness, other death, death sadness). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a four-dimensional structure yielded a good fit (X2/df = 3.124, RMSEA = .087). TDDS-R was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool in determining the death depression levels of nurses.

Death Distress and Religiosity Among Spanish Patients Diagnosed With Depression and Anxiety.

Death is a common source of uncertainty and fear for humans. Religious beliefs are among the strategies that alleviate such discomfort. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between Death Distress and religious practices while considering other associated variables (near-death experiences, death of loved ones, and psychiatric diagnoses). The Death Anxiety Scale, Death Depression Scale-Revised, and Death Obsession Scale were administered to 400 Spanish psychiatric outpatients. Anxiety was found to be crucial for the development of Death Distress across all associations. A relation between Death Distress and Catholicism was found, albeit significantly mediated by the frequency of practice.

Transcultural adaptation and psychometric properties of Chinese version of Death Depression Scale-Revised among nursing students

The study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Death Depression Scale in a sample of 391 nursing students. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.91, ranging from 0.65 to 0.91 for each subscale. Test–retest reliability was satisfactory (r = 0.821). Overall content validity index was 0.83. An exploratory factor analysis yielded 5 factors: anergia and anhedonia, death sadness, other death, death emptiness, and death vacuum. The model had an acceptable fit, with all factors loading greater than 0.5. Results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the measure in nursing student populations.

Death Obsession, Death Anxiety, and Depression as Predictors of Death Depression in Nurses

Background: Death depression is one of the components of death-related distress, characterized by a form of sadness related to the individual’s death, other people’s death, and/or the concept of death in general. Objectives: The current research aimed to investigate death obsession, death anxiety, and depression as predictors of death depression among married nurses in Iran. Methods: The sample consisted of 146 married female nurses from different wards of governmental hospitals, as well as Mehr and Arya private hospitals, affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The participants responded to the death depression scale-revised (DDS-R), death anxiety scale, death obsession scale, as well as the short-form of Beck depression inventory (BDI-13). Results: The findings indicated that death obsession, depression, and particularly death anxiety (β, 0.47), were predictors of death depression. The three predictive variables could explain 0.62 of variance in death depression. Conclusions: Different factors can affect death depression, including obsessions and anxieties related to death. Therefore, these concerns should be reduced dramatically in hospital settings, as stressful environments.

Development and psychometric evaluation of a Persian version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised: a cross-cultural adaptation for patients with advanced cancer.

The surfacing of thoughts and depressive affect associated with the prospect of death are prevalent among patients with advanced cancer. Because death cognitions and associated negative affect occur along an adaptive-less adaptive continuum, it is essential that valid and reliable instruments are available to measure death depression. The present study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Death Depression Scale among Iranian patients with advanced cancer. About 497 cancer patients completed a Persian version of the 21-itemDeath Depression Scale-Revised. The face, content and construct validity of the scale were ascertained. Reliability was also assessed using internal consistency, construct reliability and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Construct validity determined one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1. The model had a good fit (χ2 (179, N = 248) = 520.345, P < 0.001; χ2/df = 2.907, CFI = 0.916, TLI = 0.902, IFI = 0.917, SRMR = 0.049 and RMSEA = 0.088 (90% confidence interval = 0.079-0.097)) with all factors loadings greater than 0.5 and statistically significant. The internal consistency, construct reliability and ICC were greater than 0.70. Convergent validity of the scale was demonstrated. Findings revealed that the Persian version of the Death Depression Scale-Revised is valid and reliable, and may be used to assess and evaluate death depression in Iranian patients with advanced cancer.

Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Death Depression Scale Among Nurses

This study is an attempt to investigate validity and reliability of the Persian version of Death Depression Scale among male and female nurses at Jundishapur University of Medical Science and 2 private hospitals in Ahvaz, Iran, who were selected by a convenience sampling method after obtaining informed consent. They completed the Death Depression Scale—Revised (DDS-R), Death Anxiety Scale, Death Obsession Scale, as well as Short-Form of Beck Depression Questionnaire (BDI-13). The results of exploratory factor analysis on DDS-R identified 3 factors. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93 for the entire measure (19 items), with alphas ranging from .80 to .94 for the individual factors. Indices of concurrent validity for this scale with Death Anxiety, Death Obsession Scales, and BDI-13 were all significant (p < 0.001). Given the validity and reliability of the DDS-R, this scale can be used in clinical settings and research studies.

The Impact of Education and Death-Related Experiences on Rehabilitation Counselor Attitudes Toward Death and Dying

This study examined whether rehabilitation counselor exposure to death education and personal death-related experiences were related to attitudes toward their own death and the dying of others. One hundred forty-eight rehabilitation counselors employed by the North Carolina Division of Vocational Rehabilitation completed the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale (FDS), and Death Depression Scale-Revised (DDS-R). The number of personal death experiences and exposure to death education were significantly related to less fear of death among participating counselors. Rehabilitation counselors with master's degrees also expressed less fear of death than those with bachelor degrees, perhaps related to grief and loss issues typically taught in the psychosocial aspects of disability classes.

Love of Life and Death Distress: Two Separate Factors

The objectives of the current investigation were threefold: a) to explore the gender differences on love of life (a new construct in the well-being domain) and death distress (death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession); b) to explore the relationship between the scales of these constructs; and c) to examine the factorial structure of these scales. The sample was 245 volunteer Kuwaiti college students (53.5% women). Their mean age was 21.9 (SD = 2.3). They responded to the Love of Life Scale, the Death Anxiety Scale, the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, the Death Depression Scale-Revised, and the Death Obsession Scale. Gender differences on love of life were not significant. However, women had significantly higher mean scores for the four death distress scales than did their male counterparts. All the correlations between love of life and the death distress scales were not significant except one pertaining to love of life and death depression (negative) in women. Two oblique factors were extracted: death distress and love of life. It was concluded that these constructs represent two distinct and independent factors. Counselors and clinicians dealing with death distress would find that it is not associated with love of life.

Death Depression and Death Obsession: Are They Different Constructs?

This study examined the dimensional structure of Templer, et al.'s Death Depression Scale-Revised and Abdel-Khalek's Death Obsession Scale. The responses of 353 Spanish undergraduates, 261 women and 92 men (M age= 19 yr., SD= 3.1), to the Spanish forms of both scales were evaluated by means of a principal axis factoring with oblimin rotation. Three significant factors were identified: (1) Death Sadness, (2) Death Obsession, and (3) Death Anergia and Anhedonia. The distribution of the factor loadings for the items of both scales supported discriminant validity and capacity to evaluate aspects of human reactions to death.

Four Year Cross-Sectional Comparison of Death Distress among Nursing College Students

The aim of the present study was to determine the change in death distress (anxiety, depression, and obsession) among four cross-sectional samples during four years of academic study in two Arabic woman nursing colleges ( N = 570). The Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, the Death Depression Scale-Revised, and the Death Obsession Scale were administered to students in small group sessions. It was found that the only significant difference was between freshmen and sophomores on death obsession. We tend to consider this single difference as negligible. In general, the differences between the four groups on the three scales of death anxiety and death depression were not significant. That is, no significant change in mean scores on these scales had happened over time, as a result of shifting from theoretical study courses to practical ones, including dealing with the terminally-ill patients. The main aspect to elucidate this finding was the insufficient number and hours of practicum courses in general and, in particular, the experience to deal with the critical patients was not sufficient.

Satisfaction with Life and Death Distress

A convenient sample of 568 Egyptian female nursing undergraduates (M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.6) was recruited. Their scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale were correlated with scores on the Death Anxiety Scale, Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, Death Depression Scale-Revised, and the Death Obsession Scale. Pearson correlations were significant but small [-.15, -.18, -.14 (p < .01) and -.08 (ns), respectively], indicating their predictive and practical value is negligible.

Death Anxiety and Death Depression in Spanish Nurses

This study examined the dimensional structure of Tomás-Sábado and Gómez-Benito's Death Anxiety Inventory and Templer, et al.'s Death Depression Scale-Revised. The responses of 244 Spanish nurses to the Spanish forms of both scales were evaluated by means of a principal axis factor analysis with direct Oblimin rotation. Five significant factors were identified: Internally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Depression, Externally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Threat, and Death Sadness, accounting for 51.6% of the variance. The distribution of the factor loadings for the items of both scales on the five factors supported the discriminant validity of the constructs specific to each of the scales and justified their use in evaluating death anxiety and death depression independently.

The Death Depression Scale-Revised. Preliminary Empirical Validation of the Spanish Form

The purpose of this study was to translate Templer et al.'s Death Depression Scale-Revised into Spanish and to evaluate its psychometric properties in a sample of Spanish students. The Death Depression Scale-Revised is a 21-item Likert format questionnaire that could also be applied in true-false format. The Spanish form of the scale was answered by 342 psychology and nursing undergraduates, obtaining a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of .90, and test-retest correlation over four weeks was .87. The first solution of a principal components analysis yielded four significant factors with Eigenvalues greater than one that accounted for 59.3% of the variance. These factors were called, respectively: anergia and vacuum, death sadness, others' death, and anhedonia. The results show that the Spanish adaptation of the Death Depression Scale-Revised has an adequate internal consistency, criterion-validity, and a coherent factorial structure.

Relation of Existential and Religious Variables to the Death Depression Scale-Revised

This study examined the relationship of existential variables as measured by the Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R), religious variables, and demographic variables to the Death Depression Scale-Revised (DDS-R). Participants were 500 English-speaking adults from undergraduate and graduate college classes, various work settings, church groups, and community organizations. The DDS-R total score, and at least one of the DDS-R factor scores, were significantly related to all eight of the LAP-R subscales and all but one of the five religious variables examined. Of particular significance are the LAP-R Purpose scale, LAP-R Death Acceptance scale, LAP-R Existential Vacuum scale, and the “strength of certainty regarding life after death” item. Among the demographic variables, being older, having more education, and living with a significant other were associated with lower DDS-R scores. Asian ethnicity and Catholic religion stood out as related to higher DDS-R scores.

Adolescent-Parent Death Attitude Resemblance in Kuwaiti and Sudanese Families

The present study determined the family resemblance in death anxiety and death depression in Kuwait and in the Sudan. There were moderate correlations between Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970) and Death Depression Scale (Templer, Lavoie, Chalgujian, &amp; Thomas-Dobson, 1990) scores of adolescents and their parents and between the scores of the mothers and fathers. The correlations tended to be higher in death depression than in death anxiety, and it was speculated that such may not have been found if the more recently constructed Death Depression Scale-Revised (Templer et al., 2002) had been used. The present findings mesh with family resemblance death attitude research in the United States and in the Philippines in indicating a transmission of death attitude in the family context. Differences in the pattern of correlations were interpreted in terms of cultural differences.

Death Depression Scale-Revised

A 21-item Death Depression Scale-Revised was constructed to be more independent of death anxiety than the original 17-item Death Depression Scale. This new instrument had a Chronbach's alpha of .92, reasonable correlations with death anxiety and general depression and general anxiety, a meaningful factor structure, and a correlation of .85 between Likert and true-false formats.