Gender differences in death anxiety and religious orientation among US high school and college students

Abstract

Women report both a higher death anxiety and extrinsic religiosity than men, but it is unknown why. Research has not previously linked these findings. We provide two alternative theoretical models of causal links: (a) women's higher death anxiety promotes extrinsic religiosity or (b) women's higher extrinsic religiosity promotes greater death anxiety. High school and college students in the United States (118 young men and 257 young women) completed Templer's (1970) Death Anxiety Scale and the intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity subscales of Allport and Ross' (1967) Religious Orientation Scale. Women reported significantly higher levels of death anxiety and extrinsic religiosity. Gender differences in extrinsic religiosity were partially explainable by gender differences in death anxiety. Also, gender differences in death anxiety could partially be explained by gender differences in extrinsic religiosity. This provides future research with some direction in the link between gender, religious orientation, and death anxiety. It also underscores recent arguments that religious motivations vary between cultures and groups.

Death Anxiety: An Analysis of an Evolving Concept

“…Women may also have different sociocultural experiences and cultural conditioning than men. For example, studies have found that female gender has been associated with higher death anxiety in adolescent populations and in cross-cultural research (Adbel-Khalek, 1991, 2005Cotter, 2003;Pierce, 2007;Singh Madnawat, & Singh Kachhawa, 2007). In a large sample of older individuals aged 61 to 80 years, elderly females were shown to have significantly higher death anxiety than males (Hickson, Housley, & Boyle, 1988).…”

“…While studies reveal that committed religious beliefs and practices reduce death anxiety (Alvarado, Templer, Bresler, & Thomas-Dobson, 1995;Glas, 2007;Kraft, Litwin, & Barber, 1987;Pierce, 2007), the relationship is complex (Neimeyer et al, 2004). Relationships between religiosity and death concerns vary depending on age, gender, and devoutness (Neimeyer et al, 2004;Pierce, 2007). Further, cultural religious orientations influence personal life and death paradigms and thus the experience of death anxiety (Morrow, 2007;Zeyrek, 2006).…”

“…Among the elderly, the belief in an afterlife of reward or punishment predicted the relationship between death anxiety and religiosity (Fortner & Neimeyer, 1999). While studies reveal that committed religious beliefs and practices reduce death anxiety (Alvarado, Templer, Bresler, & Thomas-Dobson, 1995;Glas, 2007;Kraft, Litwin, & Barber, 1987;Pierce, 2007), the relationship is complex (Neimeyer et al, 2004). Relationships between religiosity and death concerns vary depending on age, gender, and devoutness (Neimeyer et al, 2004;Pierce, 2007).…”

Measuring Spirituality, Religiosity, and Denial in Individuals Working in Funeral Service to Predict Death Anxiety

“…This finding is also in line with Lonetto and Templer's (1986) review of the literature, which also revealed that beliefs were more salient that religious practice. Still, other researchers have found women to have both higher levels of both death anxiety and extrinsic religiosity than their male counterparts (Pierce, Cohen, Chambers, & Meade, 2007). Finally, cross-cultural research on religiosity and death anxiety revealed that Arabic women nursing undergraduates (Al-Sabwah & Abdel-Khalek, 2006), Hong Kong Chinese university students (Hui, Bond, & Wing Ng, 2007), and a wide age range of Pakistani individuals (Suhail & Akram, 2002) reported negative correlations between religiosity and death anxiety.…”

Death Anxiety among Ethiopian Undergraduate Students

“…Templer's scale is reported to have acceptable reliabilities on diverse samples with its English version as well as other language versions. With its English version, among recent studies the alpha was reported to be .78 by Pierce, Cohen, Chambers, and Meade (2007), in an Indian nurse sample .73 (Ray & Raju, 2006); high reliabilities were also found in a Pakistani sample (Suhail & Akram, 2002).…”