Death Anxiety among Ethiopian Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Measurement of Death Anxiety among 151 Ethiopian undergraduate students using Templer's scale and Thorson and Powell's scale revealed that the sample has slightly higher than average death anxiety. The results also indicate that in this largely Orthodox Christian sample, students were afraid of the pain in death and less afraid of what happens to their body after death. As some items in each scale did not work well, the Cronbach alphas were low, .61 for the 12 items of Templer's scale and .78 for the 15 items of Thorson and Powell's scale. The correlation between the two full-scale scores was .58 and between scale scores with only acceptable items was .67, indicating the possibility that both scales measure death anxiety equally well if some items are excluded. Results were not consistent with some previous studies in other cultures. Age was significantly related to both Templer's scale (.29) and Thorson and Powell's scale (.28). Death anxiety dimensions like time, control, and afterlife aspects seemed to have doubtful meanings in the Ethiopian sample.