Factorial Structure of the Death Concern Scale

Abstract

Dickstein's (1972) 30-item Death Concern Scale was developed as a measure of the extent to which an individual consciously contemplates death and evaluates it negatively. Scoring procedures provide a single score as a measure of death concern. Dickstein's definition of death concern and an examination of the items support the authors' contention that two aspects of death concern are being measured. Factor analyses of the item scores of 671 college students indicated the presence of two distinct factors in the Death Concern Scale. One factor represented Dickstein's “conscious contemplation of death” component, the other the “negative evaluation” component. The results of the factor analyses corroborated the subjective judgments of 5 independent judges and the authors of this article. It is suggested that the usefulness of this instrument may be enhanced by the utilization of separate scores for each of these two factors.

The Farsi translation, reliability and validity of the Death Concern Scale

“…41,42 Other studies have also reported reliabilities around 0.80. 17,43,44 The correlation between two parts of the DCS was strong and positive (r=0.72),…”

“…5 Scores on the DCS are moderately correlated with scores on the DAS, ranging from 0.40 to 0.60. 5,45 Factor analyses of the DCS have identified from one single factor to nine factors.…”

“…5 Scores on the DCS are moderately correlated with scores on the DAS, ranging from 0.40 to 0.60. 5,45 Factor analyses of the DCS have identified from one single factor to nine factors. [4][5]17,43,44 For the present study, the 30-item version of the DCS 17 items, also answered using a false-true format.…”

“…4 According to Dickstein's definition of death concern, conscious contemplation is the extent to which one admits to thinking about death, while negative evaluation is a reaction to this contemplation and is similar to death anxiety or death fear. 5 Yalom indicated that one of the major concerns for people is death, 6 and three sources of death fear can be identified: 1) things occurring after death; 2) the process of dying; and 3) the end of existence. 7,8 Indeed, following Melanie Klein, Yalom saw death anxiety as the root of all anxiety.…”

The Threat Index and two forms of resistance to the concept of death

“…Among these are physiological and psychological nearness to death {Feifel, 1961;Feifel and Branscomb, 1973), recent experience with death (Feifel and Branscomb, 1973;Kastenbaum and Costa, ·1977), the meaning of death· to the individual such as death of self versus death of another and the act of dying versus the state .of death- (Lester, l967a;Kastenbaum and Aisenberg, 1972;Feifel and Branscomb, 1973;Klug and Boss, 1976). …”