Death, Anxiety, and Depression in Kuwaiti Undergraduates

Abstract

The present investigation is a replication study on a Kuwaiti sample using the same psychometric instruments which have been previously administered to Egyptian and Lebanese college students. A Kuwaiti sample of undergraduates ( N 215) responded to the death anxiety scale (DAS), death depression scale (DDS), as well as the general anxiety (Trait; STAI-T) and general depression (BDI) scales. Administration of the scales was carried out in 1997–98. Alpha reliabilities were high. All of the intercorrelations ( r) between the four scales were statistically significant: DAS and DDS r .733, DAS and STAI-T r .412, DAS and BDI r .363, DDS and STAI-T .293, DDS and BDI r .273, and BDI and STAI-T r .739. All the correlations between the last mentioned four scales and gender were statistically significant, that is females attained high scores. Two orthogonal factors were extracted: general neurotic disorder and death distress. The main findings are congruent with previous results on US, Egyptian, and Lebanese participants.