Love of Life and Death Distress: Two Separate Factors

Abstract

The objectives of the current investigation were threefold: a) to explore the gender differences on love of life (a new construct in the well-being domain) and death distress (death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession); b) to explore the relationship between the scales of these constructs; and c) to examine the factorial structure of these scales. The sample was 245 volunteer Kuwaiti college students (53.5% women). Their mean age was 21.9 (SD = 2.3). They responded to the Love of Life Scale, the Death Anxiety Scale, the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, the Death Depression Scale-Revised, and the Death Obsession Scale. Gender differences on love of life were not significant. However, women had significantly higher mean scores for the four death distress scales than did their male counterparts. All the correlations between love of life and the death distress scales were not significant except one pertaining to love of life and death depression (negative) in women. Two oblique factors were extracted: death distress and love of life. It was concluded that these constructs represent two distinct and independent factors. Counselors and clinicians dealing with death distress would find that it is not associated with love of life.

Religiosity Orientations and Personality Traits with Death Obsession

“…The results showed that death obsession was more in girls than boys. The findings were in complete agreement with findings of, Abdel-khalek (2006Abdel-khalek ( , 2007, Abdel-khalek and Lester (2003).…”

“…Abdel-khalek (2007) in connection to the relationship of love to life and death obsession found that women have greater average scores than men in three scales of (death distress, death anxiety and death obsession).…”

Understanding Death Attitudes: The Integration of Movies, Positive Psychology, and Meaning Management

“…The healthy route is death acceptance. It is important to note that death anxiety does not mean a life has not been well-lived or that the individual does not love life; research has indicated that love of life and death distress are two separate factors that are not necessarily associated (Abdel-Khalek, 2007).…”

Death Anxiety and Life Expectancy among Older Adults in Iran

“…Some studies have shown higher death anxiety in women than in men, and in general, there are more sources of death anxiety in women than in men. 33,34 A study by Fortner and Neimeyer showed no significant association between men and women in death anxiety. 35 This is due to the heterogeneous nature of death anxiety across different cultures and in unique individual understanding and behaviors.…”