Death Depression versus Death Anxiety: Exploration of Different Correlates

Abstract

Possible differences between death depression and death anxiety were explored for 182 students, 81 church members, and 41 employees of an air terminal. Both female gender and older age were more highly associated with greater death anxiety than with greater death depression. Living without a significant other was associated with greater death depression than with death anxiety.

Measurement and Prediction of Aging Anxiety

“…Mirowsky (1995) argues that minorities traditionally have lower levels of autonomy than Whites, and dependency in old age may thus be a greater concern. With regard to gender, whereas death anxiety and death depression research has consistently found that women have higher levels of each (Siscoe et al 1992; Thorson and Powell 1988;Waskel 1995), the research in aging anxiety has found that men at all ages have higher levels of anxiety about aging (Lasher and Faulkender 1993). Although women are seen as aging earlier than men in terms of both physical and cognitive attributes, old women are perceived as being better-off than old men in terms of health (Kite, Deaux, and Miele 1991).…”

Construction of a Death Anxiety Scale–Extended

“…Alvarado, Templer, Bresler, and Thomas-Dobson (1992-93) called the Z score of the Death Anxiety Scale plus the Z score of the Death Depression Scale "Death Distress." Siscoe, Reimer, Yanovsky, Thomas-Dobson, and Templer (1992) termed the Z score of the Death Depression Scale minus the Z score of the Death Anxiety Scale "Death Discomfort Differential." In commenting on the characteristic lack of success in studies attempting to reduce death anxiety, Rasmussen, Templer, Kenkel, and Cannon (1998) said "If one takes more of an existential perspective, death anxiety is part of the essence of human nature.…”

Supportive-Affective Group Experience for Persons with Life-Threatening Illness: Reducing Spiritual, Psychological, and Death-Related Distress in Dying Patients

“…The DDS was designed to measure a combination of death-related depression (items taken from the Death Depression Scale) and anxiety (items taken from the Death Anxiety Scale), with higher scores indicating more distress. 21,22 We modified the original 10-item DDS scale slightly by removing an inappropriate item for our study population (fear of getting cancer) and, consistent with the factor structure of the DDS, 21 added two more items from the Death Depression Scale ("I fear dying a painful death" and "I get depressed when I think about death"), for a total of 11 items. Although the internal consistency of this scale was high, at 0.83, it was nevertheless factor analyzed to determine if multiple constructs were being measured in this sample of medically ill participants (see Results section).…”