Two studies examined death anxiety across the adult years. In the first study, 304 men and women between 18 and 87 years completed the Collett-Lester Fear of Death scale. Death anxiety peaked in both men and women during their 20s and declined significantly thereafter. However, women displayed a secondary spike during their 50s not seen in men. In the second study, 113 women between 18 and 85 years completed the Templer Death Anxiety Scale. Death anxiety displayed the same bimodal distribution and significant decline with age seen in Study 1. The results suggest that more emphasis should be placed on the cause of increased death anxiety among 20-year-olds and on why women, but not men, experience a second anxiety spike during their 50s.

In this paper we compare grief work and continuing bond models of grief to determine if one explains the data better than the other. Sixty individuals in active grief completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate their grief status, perceived similarity to the deceased along 7 dimensions, and closeness of relationship to the deceased. A matched control group was also asked to rate the closeness of relationship and perceived similarity to a living person of the same relationship as the deceased to the griever. In line with grief work, we found that perceived similarity was directly related to severity of grief and that perceived closeness of relationship declined over time. In support of continuing bonds, however, perceived similarity did not decline over time, nor was overall perception of similarity among grievers different from their matched controls.

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Adolescent's reasons for not using drugs were examined for evidence of factors that might lead to differential resistance to drug use. Six thousand eight-hundred and forty-one sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students were administered a comprehensive drug survey which included: 1) demographic information, 2) reasons not to use drugs, and 3) self-reports of lifetime and current (30-day) drug use across sixteen drug categories. The reasons for not using drugs were then factor analyzed and the results compared to a "Depth of Acceptance" (DOA) model consisting of four orientations: External Outcome, Social, and Personal. These orientations are thought both to represent distinct immunization factors and to be differentially related in strength to lifetime and current drug use. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a close fit between the hypothesized orientations and factor loadings among the sixteen items. Collectively, the sixteen items were also found to be excellent predictors of both lifetime and current drug use. While multiple stepwise regression analyses did reveal differential predictive strengths between orientation and drug use, the misclassification of a single item apparently attenuated the results for Social Orientation. The DOA model appears to provide a useful framework for "fine-tuning" prevention messages based on factors that immunize against drug use.