The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the adjustment of adolescents who had experienced the death of a parent relative to those who had experienced parental divorce. A 3 (type of loss: parental death, parental divorce, and control) × 3 (age: early, middle, late) × 2 (gender) Multivariate analysis of covariance with socioeconomic status and social desirability as covariates was performed on the subscales of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL). Main effects for type of loss indicated that the parental death and divorce groups, although not differing from each other, scored significantly higher than the control group on the HSCL subscales of Somatization, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Depression. In contrast, only the parental death group scored significantly higher on the HSCL Interpersonal Sensitivity subscale which measures uneasiness and negative expectations regarding personal communications as well as interpersonal inadequacy and inferiority. These results indicate that parental death and divorce losses impair the intrapersonal adjustment of adolescents. In addition, findings suggest that parental death is unique in that it disturbs perceptions of interpersonal relationships, a fact which may result in isolation and rob adolescents of needed support at a time when relationships with others (e.g., peers, parents, teachers) are critical to adjustment, well-being, and identity development.The continued salience of childhood loss experiences such as parental death and divorce is clearly indicated by the ongoing interest in such losses with regard to possible relationships to adult psychopathology (Amato

In light of the modern phenomenon of increased institutionalized deaths occurring in hospitals and in nursing homes, much of recent death attitude research has focused on health professionals. The present study explored possible relationships among measures of death anxiety, communication apprehension with the dying, and empathy in undergraduate nursing, premedical, and control subjects. Main effects for year in school indicated that seniors scored lower than freshmen on communication apprehension with the dying. The multivariate effects for field of study were also significant, with univariate results indicating that nursing students scored lower than controls on communication apprehension with the dying.

The development of a measure assessing attitudes toward euthanasia is presented, where data gathered from over 400 young adults yielded a thirty item Likert scale with high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Additionally, the discriminant validity of the scale was found in comparisons of those with death-related versus non-death-related experiences.

Death-related attitudinal changes in students enrolled in a Psychology of Death and Dying course were compared to those of students enrolled in Introduction to Psychology and Introductory Communication. Results indicated that communication apprehension regarding dying persons (CA-Dying) was more highly correlated with many death-related variables than was generalized communication apprehension (CA). In addition, those in the Death and Dying class were more death accepting, and more likely to covertly express fears about death and dying than those in the remaining classes. While death acceptance and unconscious fears of Pain/Injury/Disease increased among those in the Death and Dying class, such scores decreased over a three month period of time in the Introduction to Psychology and Introduction to Communication classes. These findings suggest that CA and CA-Dying are independent, and indicate that individuals' likelihood of interacting with dying persons is a factor in the reduction of death fears via death education. While didactic death education may not reduce death fears and/or associated anxieties, it may make the discussion of such concerns more permissible.

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