The Death Distress Construct and Scale

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to construct a short scale to assess the death distress construct, that is, death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession as derivatives from the already existing scales. A sample of 630 volunteer undergraduates responded to scales of death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession. A Pearson correlation matrix was computed using the 51 individual items of the three scales. A forced three-factor principal components analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation was carried out. Eight items with factor loading > 0.5 on each scale was determined. The eight items with highest factor loadings on Factor I were with “Death obsession,” whereas the Factors II and III were labeled: “Death anxiety,” and “Death depression.” Their alpha reliabilities ranged from 0.83 to 0.93, indicating high internal consistency. One week test retest reliability ranged between 0.76 and 0.91, indicating temporal stability. A single high-loaded factor of death distress was disclosed, demonstrating the discriminant validity of the death distress construct and scale. Women obtained a significantly higher mean scores on all three factors. It was concluded that the aforementioned three factors were sufficiently independent to justify their use in assessing partially distinct sub-constructs as sub-components of the generic high-order factor of death distress, with empirical and clinical implications.